Corporate Branding: CashStar
Defining the CashStar brand for over a decade.In 2017, I was the art director for the updating of the CashStar corporate branding. I developed the new brand guidelines, designed templates for print collateral, the PowerPoint template, trade show booths, and more. As employee #2 at CashStar, I gained invaluable exposure to all aspects of a fast-moving startup, which was critical to my understanding of corporate branding, enabling me to confidently take on the task of developing a new identity for the leading digital gift card provider in the industry. As we grew, we spawned additional CashStar identities: one for “Innovate”, our annual client conference; and one for “Velocity B2B”, a division of CashStar providing agency services to support merchant B2B gift card programs.
Corporate Branding: CashStar Defining the CashStar brand for over a decade.
In 2017, I was the art director for the updating of the CashStar corporate branding. I developed the new brand guidelines, designed templates for print collateral, the PowerPoint template, trade show booths, and more. As employee #2 at CashStar, I gained invaluable exposure to all aspects of a fast-moving startup, which was critical to my understanding of corporate branding, enabling me to confidently take on the task of developing a new identity for the leading digital gift card provider in the industry. As we grew, we spawned additional CashStar identities: one for “Innovate”, our annual client conference; and one for “Velocity B2B”, a division of CashStar providing agency services to support merchant B2B gift card programs.
CashStar Website
As the project lead for the complete redesign of the CashStar website, I was responsible for creating a website to drive engagement and support sales efforts through a clean and technology-driven look and feel. I consulted closely with the executive team and other internal stakeholders to ensure we were achieving the desired outcome, and coordinated the build and launch with outside designers and developers, resulting in a well-received site that effectively reflected our products, mission, and strategies.
PowerPoint Template
The updated CashStar brand colors lend themselves quite well to creating an engaging PowerPoint template. With an image-driven design, the template conveys the CashStar message in visual harmony with the text.
CashStar Infosheets
Leveraging the updated CashStar color palette, I designed the template we would use for the infosheets detailing our products and services. Exploring various grids and to achieve a piece of collateral, and landing on a layout that elegantly conveys the intended messaging, leaves me with a gratifying sense of satisfaction.
Dunkin’ Case Study
One of the best ways to market a product is to show an example of a client’s success using your product. It doesn’t hurt if the client is one of the best-known quick-serve restaurants on the planet. I leveraged our new branding to create a clean template that allowed for vibrant images. I bet you want a donut now, right?
CashStar Innovate
CashStar’s annual conference for clients and partners, branded CashStar Innovate beginning in 2015, was recognized as one of the best annual events in the payments industry. Working with an outside designer, I managed the design process from beginning to end, from the key visuals to print production of signage and badges. While the key visuals changed year to year, the event remained undeniably identifiable.
Tradeshow Booths
Cutting through the visual noise and chaos of a crowded tradeshow floor is challenging, and I managed to find creative solutions under limited budgets to effectively convey the CashStar message.
ModPort
Originally, we created product demos customized for each prospect, and sales sheets using our client partner brands. We soon realized that we needed a generic brand for several reasons: 1) we didn’t want to offend a potential client by showing a demo or sales sheet featuring their competitor; 2) it was taking too long to customize demos with unique brands; and 3) some clients were not happy we were using their branding. ModPort (i.e. Modern Portland) became a flexible, generic brand that I designed and leveraged to create sell sheets, banner ads, and demos, and we didn’t have to worry about ruffling anyone’s feathers.
CashStar Screenshots
Photoshop is my tool of choice. I love manipulating images to look like there’s something there that never really existed in real life. The woman looking at gift cards was originally shopping for coffee, but through the magic of Photoshop she is making a selection from a Blackhawk Network Gift Card Mall.
Velocity B2B
To help their clients manage their bulk B2B gift card programs, CashStar launched a division of the company called Velocity B2B. I developed the original branding and built the original WordPress website from scratch. When we updated the CashStar brand, we gave the Velocity B2B identity a facelift as well, bringing it up along with the parent.