Ragged Edge

Three promotions. Three rare talents. Joanna Nicoll has been promoted to Midweight Designer. From the moment she joined as an intern, Joanna's made an impact on everything she’s touched. Luis Jacobs is now a Senior Designer. His artful approach to creativity always pushes the work and raises our standards. And Alex Wallace becomes our Head of Brand & Partnerships. She’s been integral to all our marketing and new business success. You might also have seen her on stage at POV Budapest. Congratulations to all three of you. Incredibly deserved. 

Our friends at Wise have written a deep-dive into the work we did together on the Wise Platform. Building a sub-brand for the boardroom presented a whole different set of challenges to the original brand work. Nikki Godley's piece, 'The Art Of Sub-Branding: A Case Study In Collaboration' walks through the process, the challenges, and what we learned. There's lots of insight from the team, including Wise's Josh Payton, Rosie Isbell, Kevin Johns, Caio Orio and Andy Wells, alongside Ragged Edge's Luke Woodhouse and Jessica Bong-Woon. Read it here → https://lnkd.in/e3qE_5vX

Our friends at Wise have written a deep-dive into the work we did together on Wise Platform. Building a sub-brand for the boardroom presented a whole different set of challenges to the original brand work. Nikki Godley's piece, 'The Art Of Sub-Branding: A Case Study In Collaboration' walks through the process, the challenges, and what we learned. There's lots of insight from the team, including Wise's Josh Payton, Rosie Isbell, Kevin Johns, Caio Orio and Andy Wells, alongside Ragged Edge's Luke Woodhouse and Jessica Bong-Woon. Read it here → https://lnkd.in/e3qE_5vX

I think we’re at a bit of a turning point as an industry. We’ve spent the last five years playing defence. Starting with Covid. And followed by a relentless cascade of bad news. It was an achievement just to stay in the fight. But I’m starting to see the industry start to get a bit of its swagger back. It’s exciting. A renewed conviction in what we do. And the remarkable business impact of great branding. A mindset shift around AI, as we start to focus on the creative opportunities it will unlock. And how it will only increase the value of creative people who can think and act differently. It was fun to get on a stage and speak about it. Fun to follow the intimidatingly witty Harriet Richardson, and the crazily talented poet, Mike Garry. And even more fun to get to chat to a crowd of incredibly passionate, knowledgeable people as part of Craft’s Common Interest event in Manchester. Huge thanks for Daisy, Dan, Lorna and the team for making it happen. Give them a follow and get on the list for the next one.

“It would be so easy to retreat into safety and be boring. The challenge is to sail right up to the line but not cross it.” Luke Woodhouse (Ragged Edge ECD) and Rosie Isbell (Wise Design Director) talk to Rob Alderson about creating the Wise Platform identity. How psychological safety sits at the heart of our partnership. And how that enabled us to evolve the Wise identity for a very specific B2B audience. Without ever straying into B2Boring. Read the full interview in Design Week → https://lnkd.in/ei4eUHp4

“Not only is it conceptually sound but it is visually delightful.” Armin Vit reviews our our Wise Platform work in Brand New, highlighting the visual device at the heart of the identity. A seamless, invisible layer that helps financial institutions connect with Wise. You can read the full review here → https://lnkd.in/ghF6Rd2W

The Wise Platform infrastructure moved over $150 billion last year. It’s a serious business. But that doesn’t mean its imagery needs to be. The art direction might capture a business setting but it’s far from corporate. And full of character. Unlike generic stock and AI slop, the photography is packed with subtlety. Easter eggs include the date of their IPO, the actual code for the API and much more. If you know you know. Created with regular collaborator Charlie McKay and all our friends at Wise.

A key piece of advice I give just about every Design leader I work with is to know your weaknesses and hire to cover them. Case in point; Wise is not in the branding business. Ragged Edge is. For four years they’ve made us look better and better. Their latest effort—basically making an enterprise banking API seem cool—is incredible.

Wise might already be moving your money. On their mission to make the world’s money work, Wise isn’t stopping with individuals. They’re plugging into the institutions we’re already using. By empowering the banks that hold 95% of the world’s money with their technology and international expertise, Wise Platform is a fast track to mission accomplished. Closely collaborating with the Wise team, we created a new sub-brand for this turbo-charged, white-label solution that sits alongside the original. One that feels comfortable in corporate settings. Buttoned up but by no means boring. This is Wise Platform. Full case study on our site → https://lnkd.in/egnjpDUZ

Great work needs a great client. People who care less about what is. And more about what could be. In Design Week's piece on red flags, Max Ottignon starts with the green ones. https://lnkd.in/eNR6kPw6