Stronghold®
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About the company
Stronghold® is a fintech startup based in San Francisco, committed to developing simple yet impactful tools for underrepresented segments of the payments industry. Through a simple API, they enable access to legacy and next-generation payments and financial services.
Overview
I began working with Stronghold in 2019 as a freelance designer. By 2021, the company was experiencing rapid growth, driven by their innovative solutions and expanding presence in the crypto and cannabis markets. To support their broader market expansion and increase brand awareness across multiple sectors, Stronghold’s CEO, Tammy Camp, hired me to lead a comprehensive rebranding and website redesign initiative.
Objective
The primary objective was to elevate Stronghold's brand by refining their visual identity, enhancing their marketing efforts, and improving product design. After the successful completion of the initial project, I transitioned into a full-time role to continue expanding the brand and aligning their design strategy with both their marketing and product development goals.
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Empathizing
Asking the right questions
To develop an effective design strategy for Stronghold, it was crucial to gain a deep understanding of their business and unique needs. I collaborated closely with the CEO and Operations Manager during the initial information gathering phase to identify their key challenges and learn more about their target audience, mission, vision, and values.
discovery
Design audit and finding inspiration from top fintech companies
Additionally, during the discovery phase, I conducted a thorough design audit and analyzed competitor design strategies for inspiration. This process highlighted gaps in Stronghold’s design execution and informed the development of a more effective design strategy.
Defining
The problem
Stronghold’s early success in the cannabis sector, coupled with integrating their cryptocurrency, SHx, into their payments ecosystem, presented a unique challenge. As the company rapidly expanded, they had to balance maintaining credibility with large institutional banks—wary of both cannabis and cryptocurrency—while also appealing to crypto enthusiasts, cannabis leaders, and the broader community.
Defining
The solution
To execute a brand refresh focused on Stronghold's core mission, vision, and values, a thoughtful and cohesive visual identity was created to resonate with a broader audience. This new identity was then integrated across their website, marketing materials, and product UI, unifying the brand to enhance recognition and improve both visual design and user experience.
Brand Strategy + Identity
Refining messaging
Stronghold initially had ideas for their brand messaging but struggled to articulate them clearly and consistently, resulting in confusion and misalignment. By refining their mission and vision statements, I helped establish a more concise, clear, and value-driven message.
I also played a key role in shaping Stronghold's brand personality by integrating insights from the research phase with their core mission, vision, and values. This strategic foundation enabled the creation of a cohesive and impactful brand identity.
Brand Strategy + Identity
Visual identity
Building on the brand messaging, I enhanced Stronghold's visual identity by establishing a clear color hierarchy, refining and simplifying their logo, incorporating humanistic storytelling through imagery, and designing modern, streamlined graphics.
These elements came together to create a powerful, unified visual identity, harmonized to form a compelling and memorable visual narrative. This meticulous approach was designed to leave a lasting and impactful impression on Stronghold's various audiences.
Web Design (UI/UX)
Wireframing
At the beginning of the web design phase, I designed wireframes to define the content layout for both desktop and mobile, while gaining deeper insights into the user journey and overall flow.
Web Design (UI/UX)
High-fidelity designs
I then progressed to creating high-fidelity mockups, seamlessly integrating the information architecture with Stronghold's cohesive visual identity.
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Web Design (UI/UX)
Responsive for all screen sizes
While designing Stronghold's website responsive design was at the forefront of my mind. By designing for all screen sizes, I aimed to boost engagement, ensure accessibility for a broader audience, and enhance SEO performance, keeping the brand competitive in the digital landscape.
Web Design (UI/UX)
Before and after
Webflow Development
Bringing designs to life with Webflow
I developed Stronghold’s entire marketing website, which included over 20 unique pages. The site features dynamic CMS data collections, including a blog, newsroom, case studies, and support center.
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Brand Design
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.
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product Design
Improving the UI of merchant dashboard
Next, updating Stronghold's primary client-facing product, the merchant dashboard, was crucial for brand and design consistency. I designed a fully interactive prototype, transitioning from Figma mockups to Webflow. This prototype functioned as a staging environment and served as a detailed guide for the engineering team, outlining UI layouts and interactions comprehensively.
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Ryan Smith
Former VP of Revenue, Stronghold
