Launched in 2015, Monzo is heralded for breaking the curse of dry, corporate brands in the personal banking sector. Its uplifting colours, down-to-earth voice and intuitive experience marked a clean break with the traditional banks, winning over a generation of millennials and beyond.

A raft of challenger banks joined Monzo’s ranks in the 2010s, and more recently, personal finance brands have evolved further still as a new generation of customers search for a more sociable way to handle their money. Monzo in turn has recognised that much has changed since it was founded – both in its own activity and the world of personal finance around it – and that its visual identity needed to evolve too.

The bank has unveiled a subtle design refresh, created in a collaboration between Monzo’s design and marketing teams and London-based agency Ragged Edge.

The new identity centres on the coral hue that made Monzo stand out in the first place, supported by ‘deep navy’ and ‘soft white’, and a wider secondary palette. Colours have been dialled up in the M logomark, which will be rolled out in touchpoints such as the app icon, though the shape of the logomark remains unchanged.

In terms of typography, the friendly, rounded Oldschool Grotesk was chosen as the display typeface, while a custom version of Universal Sans – Monzo Sans – will be used as the primary typeface for functional purposes.

A “warmer” approach has similarly been taken to the art direction and brand photography, as well as a suite of illustrations created by Ola Dobrzyńska.

Monzo also revealed an “exaggerated UI”, with bold buttons and components. Senior brand manager Jesse Cogswell clarified that these will be used for marketing and advertising purposes – for instance, quickly communicating features in a short ad – rather than integrated into the app.

However, Monzo plans to implement other parts of the new visual identity, such as the colours, across its app experience over the next few months.

raggededge.com; monzo.com