Partners Life came to us with a name, founding partners with serious
credibility, and a deadline to launch. They had no fixed ideas and a very open
brief was hammered out based more on what they did not want than what they did.
We were given a very free hand and loads of scope (or enough rope to hang
ourselves) to develop a brand that said what it needed to say.
It was a relatively simple affair and once created the real work of
designing all the forms an insurer requires began. Working with their print
broker we have built over 200 forms for Partners Life and continuously make
changes, where instructed, and have developed a version tracking system that is
simple for staff, the print broker and ourselves to manage.
This ensures updated forms are always used and printed and everyone is working
on the same version.
The design challenges to Partners Life are two-fold. The brand has to be attractive to brokers and consumers, it needed to be fresh to go with the thinking, it needed to provoke without being confronting. We have challenged current industry norms with a new-look at insurance brands just as Partners Life challenges the thinking of the industry and how it does business. The brand reflects the ideology of the company and has been extremely successful.
Communicating messages with business forms is not common but we have created a set of simple to read and understand forms for use by both back office and consumers. They are easily distinguishable from each other yet belong to the same family. This is no mean feat when posed with a growing number of forms and a quickly expanding company. It's an enjoyable brand to work with and a true measure of our ability being given near free reign to develop this brand almost on our own, and advise the Partners Life management when we need to on how best to use the brand.
You probably have not heard of the company yet - it's too early. Watch out for it. This is a growing business with substantial backing.
