In1bank is the third bank in Australia to be awarded a Restricted banking license, qualifying them to become a Neo Bank - or digital only bank as they are also known. Their unique selling proposition is in their Chinese / Australian bilingual and bi-cultural offering.

To improve the brand’s identity and strategy, they collaborated with Aleph that shaped the company’s philosophy and story.

Without any marketing, design, or experience channels, we worked with In1bank’s founders on a strategic branding workshop to ideate and execute a brand guideline. We also started designing for a microsite to promote the bank’s initial offerings using Lean Branding principles and methodology.

In1bank’s target market were affluent Chinese immigrants seeking a bank that understood their culture, language and values.

We were able to gather the logo concepts after rounds of ideation and testing and ensured that these concepts were directly related to Chinese culture and values, while holding a philosophy of East meets West.

We started the project with a Three Hour Brand Sprint (invented by Jake Knapp) where we implemented the Lean Brand Canvas in a workshop with the client. Together with our project team (consisting of local designers and borderless overseas designers), we went through a few versions of ideations.

The result was a brand system that encapsulated In1bank’s value propositions of being an ‘All-in-one bank’, where we incorporated a blend of modern shapes and traditional colours.

In 2020, Aleph also collaborated with In1bank to design and build their mobile app – the first for Australian banking. With the global neo-bank movement picking up momentum, we laid out the challenges of crafting a bilingual banking app for Australian users.

We also transformed our ways of working to enable better collaboration and communication across regions. From agile ceremonies and design reviews to design jams and presentations, we embraced remote working to carry out the design and development of the app.

The result was a mobile app that was accessible and simple to use for In1bank’s users, and an improved, robust remote collaboration that redefined how we upheld our design and development qualities.