A Bold Financial Services Brand Comes to America

A Bank Meant for You

  • Complete brand transformation and US market launch
  • Innovative visual identity in the financial services category
  • New comprehensive website integrating three lines of business into one simple site
  • 25% increase in traffic resulting in 250,000 total users in the first quarter after launch
  • Smartly integrated third-party technology for opening an account
  • ADA compliant to WCAG 2.0 Level AA; English/Spanish languages
a woman in a white shirt is smiling over an orange wall with the Amerant logo

Following a shift in focus from its legacy Venezuelan market to the United States, longtime client Mercantil Bank needed to create a new compelling and engaging consumer brand for its retail banking business. Leveraging the bank’s close ties to community organizations and its pride in offering products that meet the needs of the local market, we crafted a value proposition that focused on the Brand Intimacy archetype of identity (reflecting an aspirational image or admired values and beliefs that resonate deeply). It centered on the idea of “Meant for You.”

A new name, Amerant, was formed from the Mercantil name and “Amer,” for America. This name further established the brand’s commitment to its new communities. Complementing this, the brand identity and design system extensively use warm colors, friendly modern typography, rounded shapes, and photography of people living vibrant lives.

different elements of the brand identity developed for Amerant Bank: color palette, business cards, debit and credit cards, and imagery
examples of design system developed for Amerant

MBLM also relaunched the brand’s web presence, combining four separate legacy websites for personal banking, international banking, trust, and investment audiences. We recognized the importance of layouts for all devices, given that mobile traffic makes up 54% of the site traffic. The MBLM team designed and developed the public website and also designed a full suite of user interface elements and a pattern library that were implemented by product teams responsible for online banking and mobile banking. We also created product comparison templates that follow best practices typically only used by the “big banks” to easily compare accounts or get details about individual products. The design templates are sophisticated and enable clients to manage all web content using WordPress. MBLM provides ongoing support and maintenance to the Amerant team as it continues to expand and advance its business.

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