Abacare
Abacare is an insurance broker specializing in medical, life, and general insurance for individuals and companies. With over 20 years of experience, the Hong Kong-based company now operates in Singapore, Shanghai, and Beijing.
In this project, I designed a new visual identity and a set of stationary for Abacare based only on their existing logo and brand guidelines.
My role:
Visual Designer
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Skills
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Branding
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Visual design
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Brand kit
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Collaterals
Time frame:
Jan–August, 2020
Context
At the time of joining Abacare, the company had already been established for over 20 years, and didn’t benefit from a well-defined brand when founded.
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Therefore, the company recently decided to define its brand on its own without the help of branding consultants or agencies.
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As a result, the visual identity of the company is not clearly outlined, which leads to inconsistencies and sometimes a complete lack of design on communication materials (see below).
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Business cards
Notification letters
Flyers
I was assigned to develop and execute a new marketing and communication strategy for the company. However, considering the absence of a well-established visual identity for the brand:
How could we make sure that users and clients recognize the brand during all our communication initiatives?
What was already established:
Brand story, mission & values, logo
I started looking at those brand guidelines they established by themselves.
When Abacare's story was first presented to me, it largely revolved around the founder's efforts to create a brand that would reflect his values and serve people. The most actionable part of the brand story was the statement: “We believe that "every living being needs protection. Our work is like providing a safety net for other in order to give them a sense of security"
This mission statement highlights the brand's dedication to serving people and providing them with reassurance, comfort, and protection.
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This also reflects in the brand values, which were more clearly outlined in the brand guidelines, making it easier to determine the brand's visual identity. The values are Care, Experience, Integrity, Service, and Innovation, all of which place the client and their well-being at the core of the brand: “We act as guardians, a father, a friend who prioritizes the well-being of others. We make sure our audience is secured."
The brand's dedication to people is exemplified in the logo, which portrays a parent holding a child in their arms. This logo embodies Abacare's values and mission of always serving people and delivering the best care and service.
Additionally, the warm colors used in the logo, intense red and yellow, convey a feeling of warmth and compassion that can lead to implicit trust. Through its logo, Abacare aims to be seen as a caring and trustworthy brand.
But the brand guidelines stop there, and there are no clear indications of colors, typography, illustrations to use that could help the brand be visually consistent across all communication materials.
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This is where I started my work: as the only designer working on the brand at the time, I worked on establishing a clear visual identity based on the brand guidelines already defined above.
Colors
As previously mentioned, the warm colors used in the logo convey warmth and compassion, which are important values for the brand.
However, when incorporating those colors into our designs, our users found them to be too bright and intense, making the reading of the materials unpleasant.
“It's intense and overwhelming when used as plain background color "
- Morgane, 29 yo (Indiviual client)
To solve this issue, I analyzed the color palette and identified more suitable variants of red and yellow that allow me to stay on-brand while also making the materials more visually appealing.
Third accent color (10%) - Used to add emphasis on certain block of text background
Primary color (60%) & second complementary (30%) - Used as background on a page, slide, etc.
I made an exception for materials related to the topic of maternity and children, for which I introduced a variant of light pink. Pink is a less intense color than red and is often associated with sweetness, kindness, and cuteness, which embody the features usually associated with parenting.
Typography
When selecting the typography, I wanted a font that was rounded, pleasant to see, and formal, to give a sense of professionalism.
After careful consideration, I chose Raleway and applied Raleway Bold for all headers and subheaders to add emphasis, and Raleway Regular for all paragraphs.
Front Overview
Front Hierarchy
Iconography
For the iconography, I focused on finding images that would represent our target audience, which includes young professionals, families, and companies, primarily of Asian origins since our activities are mostly based in Asia.
To maintain consistency, I re-used the imagery found in the logo, such as parents with children often holding them in their arms, to help give a sense of caring and compassion.
Additionally, I developed a series of icons and small illustrations that could be used consistently across all materials. For the icons, I used thin lines aligning with geometrical shapes on printed documents, and they could adopt the red color explained above on a white background or the white color on a red background.
I would use two different types of shapes for my designs. First, geometrical shapes such as square, circle, lines are to be used on communications materials for company clients, but more generally on any printed documents (reports, flyers, roll-up, business cards). They would help contain, and clearly separate blocks of text and images, making the whole material much easier to quickly scan through.
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Second, abstract and irregular shapes, with often gradient colors and transparent filters are to be used for digital materials, for social media for example. Often used in the background, they allow to add colors to materials without attracting too much attention or make the design feel overwhelming.
Finally, illustrations are an essential element of our approachable and friendly visual identity. We use hand-drawn, cartoonish, and colorful illustrations to differentiate ourselves from cold and impersonal insurance companies while maintaining a professional image. They are a great addition to our photography and are mostly used on our digital materials, such as social media, where our tone is lighter and more general to engage a broader audience.
Collaterals: Website & stationeries
With all those elements now established, I was finally able to create and design marketing materials: flyers, reports, business cards, letterheads, roll-ups, social media content (WeChat, Instagram).
This Abacare visual identity was also shared with the team of visual designers working on the new website.
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Printed materials are usually for sharing important amount of information, sometimes technical, which leads to the design to be organized, clear, hence the use of geometrical shapes, plain colors, and photography are preferred. Those materials would give an impression of trust and reliability when presented to potential clients or to support sales team.
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Click on the arrows hovering the picture to see more.
Digital materials aim at be shared online, mostly on social media, and therefore contains snackable pieces of information, easy to share to a wider audience. Therefore, the style and tone is more casual, and illustrations, irregular shapes and gradient colors are largely used.
