Capital One
Brand Standards & Design Systems
2015-2023
For the first 8 years leading the Enterprise Brand Creative team, and expanding that role over time to encompass all enterprise brand management and design systems, there’s little I didn’t touch when it comes to the visual and verbal brand. From crafting personality traits, to developing a custom typeface and iconography system; from creating a coordinated set of standards, guidelines and build books to caring for and managing those systems year over year; from understanding our internal and external users, developing the strategies, and coordinating the roll outs; to influencing adoption among creatives and senior leaders across dozens of teams and departments; all wrapped up in a digital brand portal, the job is never quite finished because there is always more to learn, create and iterate based on an ever changing internal and external customer needs.
2014
2023
This is how we make things
Launched in 2018 and meticulously iterated on and maintained since, the Capital One “This is How We Make Things” book codified and centralized our most important brand truths and elements, from personality and voice traits, to a cohesive digital and print color palette and unifying photography principles. The ecosystem of guidance and tools—backed by user testing and data—made marketing and experiences more cohesive, distinctive and easy to apply, and solidified my team’s role as the owners of the Capital One brand.
Enterprise Brand Standards
Brand Standards launch poster
Our voice made visual
Optimist, Capital One’s first-ever custom typeface, was built in collaboration with Dalton Maag in 2016. With 5 weights—in both regular and italics—and 98 language options, it was expertly crafted to enhance readability for over 50,000 associates and millions of Capital One customers world-wide.
Finding our way
Iconography at Capital One isn’t just a finite set of icons; it includes a robust system of build books, templates, approval processes, Adobe and Figma libraries, and managing an “always on” iconography task force of passionate icon designers to field requests and questions from across the company. The attachment and ownership designers across Capital One felt towards iconography also solidified my engagement strategy of building belief early and often with key constituents to ensure adoption and advocacy.
Helpful, approachable, inclusive
Covering topics like style, composition and color usage, Capital One’s first illustration guidelines were a major step forward in educating creatives, marketers and product owners on how to develop inclusive and equitable visuals, including a vast skin tone palette and application guidance.
Work in progress
In 2018, we designed an internal Brand Portal that has become a destination for 50,000 Capital One associates to discover and engage with the brand standards, brand news, marketing education programs, brand strategy information, marketing playbooks and more. In 2023, the Brand Standards tab will be available as a public site, eliminating the need to maintain both a PDF for external partners and digital content for the portal.
