Introduction:
In this case study, we'll delve into a branding project I led for Samos Insure, an insurance startup in Waterloo, Canada. The project covered several areas, including naming, brand identity, social media collateral, and product development. The startup's founders approached me for assistance in creating a brand that they could refine as they progress. This was essential as they were accepted into the 2022 cohort of Y-Combinator alumni and needed to present something to their potential investors quickly. As the lead designer, I worked closely with the founders to achieve this objective.
Background:
Samos Insure was created to fill a gap in the insurance market by providing quick and affordable surgical insurance in the event of accidental death. The founders identified a need for this specific type of insurance and believed that their data expertise would enable them to cater to a particular demographic. The founders aimed to create a brand that manifests a scientific approach and is trustworthy, innovative, and consumer-centric.
Naming:
The first step in the branding process was to come up with a name for the company. The founders were using a temporary name at the time, so it was crucial to settle on a name that aligned with their brand identity. To achieve this, we conducted a naming workshop that I have developed throughout my career. The workshop involved brainstorming a wide range of possible names, which were then narrowed down to a final list of five candidates. We then conducted availability research to ensure that the chosen name was user-friendly, legally available, and commercially viable.
After conducting surveys to test the different names, the team ultimately chose the name, Samos. It was selected because it sounded friendly, was easy to pronounce in different languages, and was visually short and memorable.
The naming process involved a series of workshops with the objective of reaching a high volume of names; most are useless for the purpose, but it lead to five candidate names.
Identity Design
Brand Sprint
After settling on a name for the company, we conducted a series of workshops called “Brand Sprint” with a unique approach to establishing the brand's foundation. These workshops included a “20-Year Roadmap” exercise that allowed the founders to dream big and align their brand and business, a “What, How, and Why” exercise to understand their business and motivations, the identification of the top 3 values to solidify the “Why,” and the identification of the top 3 audiences to help guide not only design but also product development. Finally, an “Attribute Association” exercise yielded a set of attributes that the design would build upon during the design stage.
Moodboards
Before creating any visual artifacts, I find it helpful to rely on mood boards. These are done collaboratively with the project stakeholders and guided by the Brand Attribute outcomes from the Brand Sprint workshop. Mood boards are great tools because they reduce subjectivity and personal taste from stakeholder input and are easy to refer to during the design stage.
Design Stage
During the design stage, I worked closely with a Product Manager and a founding member to come up with the initial proofs. However, we also had to take into consideration the efforts of the sales team, who were working hard to promote the start-up concept. This meant that our creative work had to support their pitches and adapt to changes along the way.
After a few intense months, I finally had the chance to focus on creating a consistent brand identity and developing a brand guideline. Having a clear direction and framework to work within was a relief, and it allowed me to ensure that all the branding elements were cohesive and aligned with the company's mission and values.
Having the brand attributes at hand helps while exploring sketches and early experiments
Early logo explorations featured a mascot
Due to time constraints, it was necessary to design placeholder logos for sales enablement reasons while the actual branding work was being worked on. Here are a couple of early iterations the team used for pitching the start-up concept.
Sometimes the actual design comes a little by accident during the exploration phase.
Product Design
As I began my work on product design, I realized that we needed to make sure that the website not only functioned well but was also user-friendly and intuitive. To do this, I conducted a series of user experience (UX) exercises to understand the needs and preferences of our target audience. This included creating user personas, conducting user interviews, and running user testing sessions on the existing website to identify pain points and areas for improvement.
With the insights gained from these exercises, I was able to redesign the website to better meet the needs and preferences of our target audience. This included simplifying the navigation, improving the layout and hierarchy of information, and incorporating more visual elements to make the website more engaging and visually appealing.
Consumer Website
As I began working on the consumer website for Samos, my first task was to ensure that it aligned with the business goals and served as the primary communication channel for the company. After discussing with the Product Manager, we agreed on a structure for the site and I created some wireframes of the entire user experience in Miro.
Once the wireframes were approved, I moved on to the mock-up stage in Figma where I developed a Design Library that would be used for both the consumer site and the customer portal in the future. This allowed us to maintain consistency throughout the entire product design process.
Once the design was finalized, I transferred it to Webflow, where I reconstructed all the mock-ups using their tools to create the site's front end. This was a challenging but rewarding process, as I had to ensure that the site was both visually appealing and user-friendly. Ultimately, the final product was well-received by the stakeholders and customers alike, and it served as an effective communication channel for the company.
Examples of a quickly built customer website
A few pages from the design library created to feed all UI elements in both thee consumer website and customer portal.
Customer Portal
After finishing the Consumer Website, the next task was to design the Customer Portal, which was the actual product itself. As previously mentioned, the Portal was mechanically operational but needed design work. We started by identifying potential improvements in the user journey and addressing pain points to refine the user flow and work on the User Interface. We took an iterative approach and worked with two-week sprints with the development team to produce incremental performance enhancements to the Portal, test, and iterate on the design.
To ensure a cohesive design across both sites, I kept expanding the Design Library I had created when building the Consumer Site.
A few screens from the user sign-up flow in the Customer Portal
Outcomes
Overall, the branding project for Samos Insure was a success. I'm proud to have played a part in it, and the company was able to surpass its target funding goal by raising an impressive 177% of the amount it had set out to raise.
Conclusion
In conclusion, working on the branding project for Samos Insure was a challenging but rewarding experience. By collaborating closely with the founders and keeping the company's mission and values at the forefront of our design decisions, we were able to create a brand that resonated with its target audience. With its innovative approach to insurance and commitment to empowering its customers, Samos Insure is poised for continued growth and success in the future.
