Banking from the palm of your hands.

Go Branchless: Bank Your way

It was the year 2020, at the peak of the pandemic, lockdown and the attending need for stronger digital presence /engagement with her target audience, Keystone Bank sent in a digital marketing campaign brief to execute a refresher project for the bank’s mobile app.

By refresher, they meant strip it down to its bares and build from down up. Of course, time was important as the lockdown provided huge digital hunger that must be harnessed, and that very quickly - competition are fast gaining grounds.

With the goal being an app that stands independently from the masterbrand Keystonebankng.com - these were our deliverables.

New Name
Brand Identity
Mobile App Redesign
Digital Campaign

In 2020, at the peak of the pandemic, physical banking slowed to a halt while digital demand exploded. Lockdowns created an urgent need for stronger, more intuitive digital banking experiences, and competition for user attention intensified almost overnight. Keystone Bank needed more than a campaign—they needed a reset.
The brief was clear but ambitious: strip the existing mobile app to its bare essentials and rebuild it from the ground up.
Speed was critical.
The market was hungry, competitors were moving fast, and the bank’s mobile offering needed to stand confidently on its own, separate from the masterbrand website.
During lockdown, banking became deeply personal. With branches out of reach, people wanted control, simplicity, and reassurance - banking that felt intuitive, accessible, and truly in their hands.
Banking from the palm of your hands.
We reintroduced the app as KeyMobile, positioning it as a flexible, user-first banking experience that adapts to how people live, move, and transact.
The idea extended into the brand line: KeyMobile - Bank Your Way, reinforcing autonomy, ease, and personal control in uncertain times.
The project was executed as a full through-the-line digital transformation. We developed a new name, built a distinct brand identity, redesigned the mobile app experience, and launched a digital campaign that brought the idea to life across key online touchpoints.
The refreshed KeyMobile stood independently from the Keystone Bank masterbrand—clear, modern, and intuitive -meeting users exactly where they were during lockdown, and positioning the app as the primary gateway to everyday banking in a digital-first world.

First Things First… New Name, New Ident!

The Masterbrand Logo

The ask was to fully retain the integrity of this logo mark, as the board team would not approve anything that removes from the masterbrand mark.
Step I: Make It Mobile

The Cubes forms an integral part of the brand’s heritage and we had to maintain it as it’s become the most recognizable part of the brand.
Step II: The Intricate Lines

Stripping a diagonal 3D shape and stripping it to outlines to fit perfectly into the idea of a mobile phone, without losing touch of what the brand represents, is no mean feat. But it can be done.
Step III: Coming Together

Here’s the redesign - fully digital, fully on brand.
Nothing mising, nothing broken.
Step IV: Lines In Pleasant Places

Words too. Retaining the blocks and adding a touch of digitalization led us here.
Let it all work out.

Designed brand new screens for KeyMobile…

Designing KeyMobile meant rethinking mobile banking from the ground up. We redesigned the app screens with a strong focus on usability, clarity, and speed - prioritising intuitive navigation, simplified user flows, and reduced friction across core banking actions.

The process was deeply collaborative and entirely remote. Endless Zoom sessions, rapid prototyping, and continuous product iterations defined the build phase. Each screen evolved through constant feedback loops between design, product, and engineering—testing assumptions, refining interactions, and stripping away complexity to surface what truly mattered to users.

The result was a clean, modern interface that felt light, responsive, and personal - an app experience designed to stand independently, give users control, and make banking genuinely easy from the palm of their hands.

To raise awareness and whet appetite with our target audience, we worked on some teaser digital videos to drive anticipation…

Keeping the tease rolling…

We added some more teasers and we still had to stick with using the motherbrand identity because the bank’s board had not yet decided that the new and refreshed app should have a separate identity.

While they laud the project so far, they advised that pending the final decision of the board, we should carry on using the motherbrand’s identity on all communication materials.

#GoBranchless