A trust-first brand evolution for a Forbes Fintech 50 company
Tools used
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“Rebecca is a talented designer, great business partner, and a truly dedicated creative leader."
The challenge
When you’re a fast-growing Fintech, clarity and trust aren’t “nice-to-haves” — they’re the currency.
Stronghold® was evolving quickly, expanding into new markets and audiences, and needed a brand + website presence that could keep up. The existing experience wasn’t consistently communicating credibility, differentiation, or momentum — especially for new visitors landing cold from search, partnerships, or investor intros.
The core tension: move fastwithout looking messy — and ensure the brand read as credible Fintech, not a flashy “crypto company.”
The goals
- Build a brand foundation that feels credible, modern, and distinctive in a regulated, trust-driven space.
- Ensure the look and tone communicated Fintech-first (not crypto-hype).
- Translate the brand into a conversion-friendly marketing site that explains value quickly.
- Create a system that’s scalable, so the team can grow the site without diluting consistency.
- Expand the brand into new channels (including YouTube) while keeping everything cohesive.
The solution
I led the strategic direction and execution of a brand refresh that sharpened Stronghold’s mission, vision, and values while evolving the visual identity for a broader Fintech audience.
The refreshed brand system was then applied across the website, marketing materials, and product UI — creating a more unified, recognizable experience that strengthened trust, improved consistency, and elevated the overall user experience.
A brand system that signals credibility, confidence & trust
- Developed / refined the visual system and brand rules to create consistency across touchpoints.
- Evolved the brand expression to feel more grounded, financial, and trustworthy (less “flash,” more signal).
- Built practical guidelines that made the brand easy to apply day-to-day.
Web and product UI designed for clarity, conversion, & coherence
- Created wireframes to align content with page layouts and optimize the overall structure for clear, intuitive navigation.
- Designed polished, accessible, brand-aligned UI across key web pages in Figma.
- Expanded systems across product dashboard and payment checkout flows.
- Established a reusable component library to keep layouts cohesive while content changes.
Designs brought to life in a scalable Webflow build
- Built the site in Webflow with a modular, scalable approach (reusable sections + CMS where it made sense).
- Performance-minded implementation and responsive QA across breakpoints.
Expanding designs and solidifying brand recognition
- From investor decks to social media campaigns to white papers and more, I designed a variety of marketing collateral, ensuring brand consistency across all assets and channels.
- Expanded the brand guidelines to include a YouTube system (thumbnail rules, typography + hierarchy, layout templates, and consistency standards).
- Helped the brand show up with the same credibility on video as it does on the website — supporting their momentum to 200k subscribers and beyond.
The results
- Stronger brand cohesion across web, product, and content channels - I treated the brand as a growth asset — not a one-time facelift.
- A clearer, more credible Fintech-first brand perception, supporting its evolution into a Forbes Fintech 50 company - I made credibility the north star: Fintech trust cues, not crypto flash.
- A scalable web system that made new pages and updates faster and more consistent - I built for today’s goals while designing a system that can handle tomorrow’s pivots.
- A YouTube guideline system that helped them show up consistently while scaling content — contributing to the milestone of 200k subscribers.