Personal finance, branded as freedom and time.
- Role
- Brand strategy, identity system, brand architecture, web design & creative direction
- Client
- Money Guy
- Led at
- Love and Science
- My title
- VP of Brand & Creative
The Strategy
The Money Guy Show is a personal-finance brand built by Brian Preston and Bo Hanson, two financial advisors with a large national following. Through Love and Science, I led the brand strategy and the full identity system, then stayed on for years as the work grew into a parent brand, new products, a new show, and a bestselling book.
We made the brand about freedom and time, with money as the way to get there. That led to the positioning line, simplified financial strategies that go beyond common sense, and a personality that was warm, funny, and a trusted guide who keeps the door open to everyone. Three core audience personas, Ambitious Andy, Millionaire Mark, and Mature Melinda, gave the team a clear picture of who they were talking to.
The Identity
The icon is a speech bubble with a plus inside. The bubble is the podcast, where the brand started. The plus is the value they add to your life. In the wordmark, the G in Guy is a circular arrow representing the Abundance Cycle, their belief that generosity comes back around.
The System
I led the creation of the brand guides, covering positioning, audience, value propositions, and voice and tone, and the templates their team needed to use weekly: YouTube thumbnails, social posts, emails, PowerPoint slides, etc. We built much of it with their core team, and I guided implementation through a multi-year relationship.
The Brand Family
The audience loved the new brand, and the parent company, Abound Wealth, asked for the same thing. We built Abound to share parts of the Money Guy system and branded their first product, LevelUp.
When Money Guy decided to launch a new show, Making a Millionaire, we were some of the first to know. We took the original Money Guy brand and extended the system to cover it.
Want a study in scaling a brand identity? Money Guy has several consumer-facing products that needed to fit within the overall brand identity. This was a challenge, but it’s some of my favorite work for them.
The Book
Brian decided to write a book, Millionaire Mission, but the publisher’s cover didn’t fit Brian’s vision, so he asked me to redesign it. From there we built a product line, a web presence, and a book trailer I creatively directed with our video and animation team. The book made the New York Times bestseller list. I like to think it’s only because of the cover design.
Room to play
A good system leaves room to play. I turned their four core values into posters, each with its own personality but all in the Money Guy colors, then had them printed and framed for the Money Guy offices.
