Banking has remained more or less unchanged in Japan for 150 years, and refreshing heritage brands to appeal to a younger audience is no mean feat. There’s much to consider when taking something that’s typically brick and mortar digital: security, trust, and a user-friendly interface being just a few examples. But in the case of Minna Bank, there was no hurdle too big as a team of designers, illustrators and directors created Japan’s first digital bank. To mirror the values of a younger generation and make financial technology appeal to them, the team used simple line illustrations, a black-and-white colour palette and stylish iconography – winning a Graphite Pencil in Branding and being shortlisted for both the Illustration and Digital Design categories. Here, Fjord Tokyo Design Director Taehan Yoo, Head of Design at Minna Bank Takatoshi Nakamura and Illustrator Hiroaki Seto tell us about their process, the importance of target audience research, and the risks needed to take on a branding project like this.

Minna Bank is pioneering in its ability to adapt to the new. As Japan’s first digital bank it’s given the traditional banking model a modern twist by introducing a cloud server that’s easy to update – an appealing aspect for the digital generation that didn’t exist previously in banking services. “In order to create a bank of the future, it was necessary to give a feeling that a completely new thing was born while respecting the accumulation so far,” says Taehan Yoo, Creative and Design Director at Fjord Tokyo. “There was a big divide between the younger generation and the banking industry, and we wanted to bridge that gap with the power of creativity by breaking away from the traditional bank-likeness. Many of the younger generation today live in a more free environment, and I wanted to express that atmosphere with the bank.”

Colour has the power to make or break a project. In the case of Minna Bank, the team opted for a monochromatic palette in order to convey a sense of confidence, stability and security, as well as appeal to a younger audience. “Confidence is indispensable for the expression of banks,” says Takatoshi Nakamura, Head of Design at Minna Bank. Starting off with a deep-dive into the life and culture of the target group – i.e. teens, and those in their 20s and early 30s – the team discovered how the current banking approach uses language that’s “difficult to understand”, says Nakamura. In response, the research reported that simplicity and monochrome was the right path to take. “In the Japanese banking industry, green, red and blue were the mainstream,” adds Taehan Yoo, “and monochrome expressions were rarely adopted. It was a strategy that was logically established by observing these environments.”

In order to appeal to the younger generation, a vital component was the inclusion of illustration. “Colouring and typography are important elements that visually compose the brand,” says Taehan Yoo, “but the illustrations are what reach the user most directly, and they really seemed to be game changing.” Working with Illustrator Hiroaki Seto, the team were able to develop a visual language that both gave a sense of inclusion and diversity in the illustrations, plus a feeling of “casualness and sincerity,” says Takatoshi Nakamura. 

With their specific audience in mind (the digital-native generation) the Minna Bank team made sure to gather as much information about their preferences, taste and needs in order to proceed with the illustrations. This was particularly useful in the character development, which included research into the various body shapes in the world, as well as the types of clothes that the younger generation wears. “I looked at casual clothes such as Muji and Uniqlo, which are familiar to me, but I also looked at the clothes of fashionable people not only in Japan but around the world,” says Hiroaki Seto. “You can spot the clothes of people walking in NY and London that appear in the content that introduces cities around the world on Youtube; t-shirts with little information and simple fashionable jeans. I thought that life-size fashion could be produced because it was casual and simple.”

Why play it safe and design an identity that looks like everything else in the market? Minna Bank went against the grain when it came to its own brand, and the team couldn’t be more delighted with the monochromatic outcome. The illustrations and bold colour palette certainly paid off, too, despite a few doubts during the process. “To be honest,” says Taehan Yoo, “I was thrilled with the monochrome. The design team was confident and prepared, but there were not zero voices asking if it would really succeed. Yellow, which is associated with money, is used as a sub-colour, but it is also set to a modern, high-tone yellow instead of the old-fashioned yellow, and yellow is used as a functional element unlike the brand colour. So, I wondered if this thorough monochrome expression really worked or was too new, and there were nights when I couldn't sleep (laughs).”