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Brand identity program for innovative Mumbai-based fintech, Kuhoo
Rezonant focused on creating and designing a distinctive and engaging brand identity for an upcoming student loan Fintech company.
Challenge
Kuhoo is an Edu-fintech company that aims to make educational loans accessible and affordable. Acquiring loans especially in education requires a person to go through multiple rounds with the bank and the paperwork can be confusing. Using advanced technology, Kuhoo is helping students achieve their goal of going to their dream college by simplifying the loan process. We helped Kuhoo stand out as a brand and helped them build a unique brand identity and visual language.
In the field of fintech which is already overpopulated, standing out and being noticed is a challenge. Kuhoo wanted to be perceived as a brand that was friendly and approachable. The targeted audience was the middle and lower middle-class population. Our challenge was to communicate this through the logo and design language.
We brainstormed words associated with Kuhoo’s aim as a brand. These keywords and ideas would help us later on when we began building the brand identity and visual identity.
Research
To understand what goes into taking an educational loan, we asked ourselves questions that one might think of when applying to colleges and what factors to consider when applying for loans. Questions such as – ‘how to fund education if a student gets into their dream college’, ‘what financial documents are acceptable, and ‘how do I look for external scholarships?’. These questions gave us insight into the thought process of an applicant and how to position Kuhoo as a brand that is able to help and solve the problems of the applicants.
Brand Archetype- The Hero
The Brand Archetype exercise helps us understand the tone of voice of the brand, its audience and the kind of market they are targeting.
Brands under the ‘Hero’ archetype are based on overcoming obstacles and achieving certain goals. A hero brand is like a ray of hope for its consumers. Hero brands project achieving the impossible at the core of their communication. They inspire their users to take action. As Kuhoo wants to enable opportunities for its members, it is clearly a ‘Hero’ brand.
The Opportunity
The team at Kuhoo dove into the student loan sector and found out that in India, approximately 35 million students are currently in the higher education system, and about 400,000 students go abroad for their education. With the cost of education continuously rising rapidly, do people from the middle and lower socio-economic class sections of society get a chance to go fulfil their dreams of studying abroad ?
Team Kuhoo noticed that the student loan market was a growing segment and relatively untapped by the lenders. Seeing this as an opportunity, they went forward with their mission to democratise education and make it accessible to Indian students. Their vision was also an inspiration for team Rezonant and their dedication and drive propelled our team to work and create with Kuhoo.
Design
After our designers gained insight into the kind of audience Kuhoo was targeting, the next step was to use the keywords and tone of the brand identity, brand positioning statement and assets that would help the brand stand out in an already crowded domain.
Coming up with the positioning Statement- “Sound of Opportunity.”
As an Edu-fintech company, Kuhoo wanted to position itself as a team of people who help students realise their educational dreams and give them wings to fulfil their aspirations. They wanted to be the go-to brand that students were thinking of when it came to educational loans. Keeping this in mind, we came up with the positioning statement, “Sound of Opportunity.” The nature of the positioning statement, ‘Sound of Opportunity’ was onomatopoeic. This gave us a lot of room to scale all assets in line with the brand identity.
Ideation Sketches
Kuhoo is the sweet sound made by the Cuckoo bird which is known to bring prosperity as per the Indian belief system. This also makes the word Kuhoo an onomatopoeic word. We played with this concept and designed a variety of logos. We focused on bringing out the sound aspect of the logo, which became an integral part of the brand identity.
Anatomy of the Logo
Brand identity variants
We created primary and secondary versions of the logo against a white and blue background respectively. These are the most commonly used versions of the logo.
After finalising the logo and the positioning statement, we created guidelines for the sizing of the logo. The logo we created consisted of two variations, a word mark and a sound mark. The sound mark was a shortened version of the logo. Both the logos could be used as and when required in the assets.
Typography and colour
For the primary and secondary typeface, we went with ‘Quicksand’ – a fun, friendly and approachable type family. We felt that the rounded edges fit well with the brand tone of Kuhoo.
For the brand colour palette, we decided to stick with popular colour in the industry, blue, and we chose a shade that was energetic and vibrant. We chose yellow to create contrast and it signifies hope and optimism, which Kuhoo wants to bring to students. We added greyscale to the colour palette to create a sense of balance.
Iconography
To match the rounded visual aesthetic of the brand language, we create icons that followed the visual language of the logo which also displayed the elements of fun and approachability.
“In the icons, the people and symbols are in yellow, whereas we used blue for the other elements.”
Swash
The yellow section of the swash shows us the dream college students hope to enter, while the blue section portrays the reality of going to college, learning and eventually graduating.
“Using the power of visuals, we illustrated a swash to display the journey of hope we give for fulfilling the dream of education.”
Primary Applications
Using the visual language of the brand we created a variety of printable brand communications such as business cards, letterheads, envelopes and folders for employees to store important documents.
“We included a QR code behind the business cards that linked it to the person’s socials such as LinkedIn profile.”
The Kuhoo letterhead is simple, functional and formal. We may seem like a friendly bunch, but we know our business right.
We designed 3 styles of envelopes.
Digital assets
We created a series of emailers that were internal facing as well as for customers.
We designed a corporate deck to brief all the new Kuhoosters about the vision and mission of Kuhoo as a brand.
We designed banners for Kuhoo’s LinkedIn page as well as for the employee’s personal pages.
“These templates help maintain uniformity and consistency throughout social media.”
Website
We made a simple and easy-to-navigate website for Kuhoo to make loans easily accessible online.
“The website brings students one step closer to achieving their educational dreams.”
Impact
This project was an inspiration for the entire team of Rezonant. We got to be a part of the Kuhoo journey, which was moving towards fulfilling the aspirations of young students.
The logo and brand identity were well received and helped Kuhoo stand out as a brand and gained a lot of traction.