Settle came to us six weeks before their public launch. They had a product they were proud of — a personal finance app designed to help first-time savers build healthy money habits without the anxiety most finance apps create. The problem was their brand. It looked like every other fintech that had come before it. Blue gradients. Abstract icons. Copy full of words like "empower" and "journey." It felt like it was designed by a committee that had never been anxious about money. The brief was to fix that. Build a brand that feels like a friend who happens to be good with money. Not a bank. Not an app. A relationship.

Three problems hiding in one brief.

Challenge 01:

A category full of noise

Fintech is saturated with brands that all look and sound alike. Standing out meant resisting every visual convention the category had established.

Challenge 02:

A young, anxious audience

Settle's users were 22–35 year olds with complicated feelings about money. The brand needed to feel reassuring without being condescending. Warm without being soft.

Challenge 03:

Six weeks to launch

There was no time for extended exploration. We needed to arrive at the right answer quickly and build from there. No mood boards. No options. One direction, defended from the first presentation.

Typography system — humanist serif paired with a clean geometric sans

Brand voice guidelines — 22 pages

App store assets and onboarding screens

Website — desktop homepage

Website — mobile experience

Social media template system

THE OUTCOME

Launched to 12,000 waitlist signups.

Settle launched on schedule.

The brand landed exactly as intended — warm, distinctive, and immediately recognisable in a category that had trained people to expect cold and generic.

The waitlist grew to 12,000 people by launch day, driven largely through organic social sharing of the brand assets. Priya attributed a significant portion of that growth to the visual identity performing as content in its own right.

We’re still in touch. When they raise their Series A, we’ll be back.

Metrics

Testimonial

“Fern felt less like an agency and more like two people who genuinely cared whether we succeeded. That’s rare.”

Priya Nair
Founder, Settle