In a nutshell

Fizz is a fintech startup that aims to help college students build healthy credit scores. They provide students with a debit card and an accompanying app that promotes responsible financial management. Fizz has managed to aid tens of thousands of students across 300+ universities since its January 2023 launch. I joined Fizz in March 2023 as a contracted all-round designer, creating brand assets, artwork, email marketing, web design, and motion graphics.

To read more about the background and research for this case study, take a look at its deep dive version.

Branding

While I’d love to claim the creation of Fizz’s brand design, I can't take that credit– Fizz simply brought me on board to use and maintain their existing brand kit. Fizz does a great job of setting itself apart from the competition, and it aligns well with the intended target audience. The branding is bold, fun, and eye-catching, but it also has a very streamlined edge that keeps it from appearing too playful (or in other words, immature).

Drawings to draw people in

A significant portion of my work for Fizz revolves around illustrations. These illustrations cover a wide range of financial topics and strike a balance between fun and seriousness. You'll see these assets throughout the app, on merchandise, social media, blogs, and in email marketing.

Tailor-made multimedia visual assets

I've created bespoke images for various purposes, including email marketing, promotional apparel, and in-app assets. For web and app usage, we generally use the artwork as-is to avoid increasing loading times due to rasterized assets. However, for other media, I add some grainy, perfectly-imperfect post-processing to make the illustrations just a little bit more interesting.

Themes and topics

Although the content and copy paired with these assets often focus on finance-related topics, the themes and subjects of the artwork vary. Instead of outright depicting money, I try to reference it to avoid monotony. Sometimes these nods are subtle... Other times, not so much.

Finding the right balance

With each illustration request, I challenge myself to creatively represent financial concepts without repeating motifs. The biggest challenge is walking the line between relatively serious topics and visually fun, exciting designs. They’re almost never too boring, but sometimes they do get too fun. But that's all part of the process.

Great copy deserves great visuals

Many companies rely on stock assets for social media posts or blog articles, but not Fizz! Custom illustrations make the brand feel more well-established and intentional. In a world dominated by Corporate Memphis, Fizz chooses to march to the beat of its own drum.

If you didn't know, Corporate Memphis is a bit of a meme among designers. It's generally perceived as offensively inoffensive and painfully corporate.

Ensuring consistency that's scalable

Even though different mediums call for various techniques, styles, and topics, the illustrations maintain a consistent look. This allows them to be used across multiple platforms with little to no additional editing.

Marketing communications

Fizz uses multiple channels to advertise their product, including social media and email. The best way to keep an email from going straight to the trash is by creating content people actually want to interact with, whether it's useful information or a great deal. The visual is just the hook, but you can't catch fish without a hook!

Closed mouths don't get fed

As a B2C company, it's crucial for Fizz to stand out in the crowded social media landscape. For social media posts, the focus is on creating valuable content. The post shown above uses Fizz's signature yellow as a full background color, which isn't common. When the objective is to make the content hard to ignore, sometimes you have to bend the rules a little bit.

Fizz Premium

Fizz Premium, the latest addition to the Fizz family, offers users more insights, savings, and cash back. The branding needed to be distinct yet still recognizable as part of the core brand. If Fizz is for students who want to get serious about their finances; Fizz Premium is for those who want to get very serious.

Fizz Premium's colors

The primary brand color for 'base' Fizz is bright yellow, so our initial thought for a premium variant was to use gold. However, experimenting revealed that gold felt too similar to the base brand, and we needed more contrast. And what usually surpasses gold? Exactly: platinum!

How it's being used

You'll find Premium-branded assets integrated into Fizz's customer-facing communication when appropriate, but the primary focus remains on the base Fizz brand. Initial feedback has been positive. Conversion rates are reportedly high, and stakeholders are pleased with the new brand offshoot– and so am I!