In mid-2020, JSC Federal Credit Union, at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, offered us the opportunity to help transform their much loved 60-year-old brand into a new breed of financial service – highly digitized, and explicitly inclusive of the needs of the broader community.
Working with the executive team in a highly collaborative engagement model, we developed their new brand strategy, name, and omni-channel verbal and visual identities. We also supported them as they transitioned to a new digital financial platform to serve the highly diverse Texas market.
Building a purpose-driven culture was critical. We worked with the leadership team, led by CXO Hillary Law, to design the strategic framework for the new identity, establishing the brand's overall positioning, as well as organizational values and behaviors.
The new organization aspired to deliver positive impact for their community, members, membership, and team. Supermoon developed a proprietary "Social Impact Framework", focusing leaders and team members on values and behaviors that set the tone for internal culture. This approach brings their purpose to life—clarifying priorities, and guiding decision-making.
Supermoon works closely with some of the most expert naming professionals in the United States to ensure names are memorable, strategically powerful and emotionally resonant, and most importantly, truly ownable.
The name Wellby was selected after a thorough evaluation involving the creation of over a thousand name options, shortlisting, internal alignment, consumer testing, linguistic checks and trademark investigation. A simple, approachable, and evocative name, Wellby was extremely well-received in consumer research, scoring positively on financial wellness, empathy and support.
The comprehensive Wellby verbal identity system includes a messaging platform, tone-of-voice, and directive copy examples.
These allow the Wellby team to effectively communicate the personality and intent of the new brand to various audiences including current and future members, internal teams and new recruits, and the wider community through marketing and outreach. We also delivered tailored training sessions created together with Wellby's communications team.
Building on the brand strategy, Houston's highly diverse communities, and the JSC Federal Credit Union's historical connections to space exploration and engineering, our visual identity was inspired by the concept of "lifting off". Bold, bright Wellby Violet positions the brand as dynamic, inclusive, and contemporary—clearly differentiated from the traditional red-white-and-blue that most Texas banks sport.
The logo positions Wellby squarely among the new generation of digital-first financial services. We ran extensive consumer testing, and responses brought extremely positive feedback. As a logo designed for the 2020s and beyond, the symbol supports digital application, motion and movement, and has the ability to flex for any future needs.
Working with Wellby's internal design team, we created illustration concepts and defined the visual hierarchy of an illustration system, from hero images through to product badges and functional iconography to work across everything from brand marketing to mobile apps.
We bring more than two decades experience defining core brand systems for multi-channel deployment, helping designers and marketers to execute consistently across all touchpoints. For Wellby, we documented all decisions in an extensive set of brand guidelines covering the core brand strategy, verbal and visual identities, as well as recommendations for digital execution and visual application examples.
As part of the extensive engagement with Wellby, we developed and led live training sessions to support departmental leads as they bring their teams up to speed with the new brand. All training sessions are recorded for onboarding future employees.
The refreshed brand has been extremely well-received by members, local community, and the financial services industry. It will become increasingly visible in coming years, especially with some notable Houston landmarks.
We are also proud to have received the most significant credit union industry recognition for brand work from the Credit Union National Association, including two Diamond Awards for "Best Logo" and "Best Re-Brand / Corporate Identity" for 2022.
“Supermoon helped us move from a defined purpose to a brand expression that represents our history and future.
Their team is incredibly collaborative and worked with our team members to create a brand name and identity that will help us live out our purpose.
Wellby honors our legacy with space in our new logo, inspired by the Andromeda galaxy, and also conveys what we're all about - our members' financial well-being.”
- Hillary Law, Chief Experience Officer
