Squeezing character into car insurance
Brand identity for the fair insurance champions
In an industry of bad relationships and complexity, Marshmallow is an insurance company doing things differently. We worked together to develop the brand into something that visually reflects the experience they give customers — fair, supportive, on your side. So Marshmallow can continue their mission to make insurance better, for everyone.
Visit Marshmallow“We’re on a mission to rebuild insurance. For good. Using technology, we’re creating a better kind of insurance that works for you and the world around you.”
The Marshmallow story
Buying insurance is usually a necessity, not a choice. That’s reflected in the usual customer experience: boring, transactional and often frustrating. Marshmallow choose to engage with people positively, with humanity and compassion. Our thinking rallied around the idea that there’s no reason for insurance to be tedious and dull. We set out instead to make Marshmallow feel welcoming, feel-good and fun.
We built a visual identity toolkit with elements of charm and delight through playful and celebratory ‘pizzazz’ elements. At the heart of this is the marshmallow form. This comforting shape frames imagery and illustration, informs the colour palette and creates a uniquely squishy update on the Marshmallow logo.
To be a viable alternative, the Marshmallow brand must be worthy of people’s confidence. Their pink colour is well known in the market, and we adapted it slightly to create ownable brand moments. To infuse a sense of safety through the identity, we introduced a grounding navy and calm supporting tones. The serif typeface used for headlines creates distinction and adds another element of trust.
Marshmallow put customers first and break down any ‘us and them’ barriers. We warmed up the system with a toolkit of illustrations to inspire the internal design team. They communicate the character that makes the business so different — from functional use across the product UI, to more expressive brand moments elswehere.
To create real distinction, it’s important to weave character through the digital product itself. We worked with Marshmallow’s team to identify key screens, and designed new modules to show the features in a more ownable Marshmallow way.
Against a category plagued by complexity our focus was always to remove noise and not add to it, particularly when it came to applying the new visual identity to the website. We used lots of white space to reflect Marshmallow’s simplicity and transparency, making sure every design element had a clear purpose throughout the process.
“Output brought a whole new perspective to the Marshmallow brand. The team were collaborative and inclusive, and really understood our needs. Our new brand elements allow us to be more consistent and faster with our design.”
Georgia Kent-Braham
Design Manager, Marshmallow
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