FIN-RA Safe Investment School
Rebranding and website development for the #1 online investment course in Russia
Dmitry Tolstyakov is the winner of the All-Russian Financial Advisor Competition, the host of a blog about smart investments on Instagram and the author of the course ‘I am an investor’ about passive investments in the Russian stock market. Over 2 years, Dmitry has trained over 2000 people on the course in simple principles of portfolio investment. In 2019, the project grew into an online school FIN-RA, where dozens of experienced financiers teach. The expert's personal website should become the company's platform, while the visual identity should set it apart from other players and convey the idea of the brand.
70% of success is psychology and attitude towards money. Instead of harmful advice on how to speculate in the market to make a big score, the FIN-RA Safe Investment School team teaches how to safely start investing and create capital ‘forever’. Here they do not just systematise knowledge about investments, but change the financial outlook, bring peace of mind and confidence to money. It is this ‘Zen approach’ to investments that formed the basis of FIN-RA's ‘eco-friendly’ brand.
Instead of a dull green colour and direct associations with ‘green’ banknotes, we give the brand meaning with a refreshing green. Metaphor: capital is not an attempt to grab here and now, but a planted tree that will bear fruit (financial stability) over time if it is constantly tended. In the logo, in a zen state, one can see that the letter I is the tree that has grown from the letter I. Adhering to the aesthetics of minimalism, we leave room for fantasy - let someone see the rising sun.
Financial stability is a path, calm and confident. We do not offer visitors to the site to choose a product or buy a service, we offer to go through a path that involves a multi-stage educational programme, from a free marathon to a closed club.
Instead of articles - free knowledge, instead of reviews - cases of students, instead of urgent appeals to buy - an offer to start. Brand identity can be seen not only in the visual style, but also in the brand tone of voice, which can be read between the lines. Every word on the website is calibrated, the copywriter's task is not just to deliver information, but to make the brand image tangible, to create a verbal brand identity.
Building a visual style around a philosophical attitude to money, Zen finance, we actively use soothing greens instead of traditional stamps - coins, calculators, banknotes. The desire for financial security is carefully emphasised with textured gold strokes.
Despite the fact that the new site is dedicated to a whole school, not to a single expert, we do not deprive the site of a human face. People trust people. Dmitriy, his team, partners and clients are accompanying us on our way to financial balance. Training at the school gives both emotional benefits - confidence in the future, and rational benefits - financial literacy and quite measurable indicators - growth of passive income. Instead of testimonials - cases, live stories of the graduates of the course, where they will tell us how it has affected their lives, in figures and emotions.
When building the dramaturgy on the website, we moved away from cheap tricks - to start introducing the audience to the brand by scaring them about the consequences, which is in no way compatible with the ‘zen approach’ to investment. Instead of fears, we suggest visualising portraits of clients and describing their pains - everyone, housewife and entrepreneur, will recognise themselves and understand what it is for them. And to keep the site visitor from getting bored and smiling, we used familiar faces from banknotes as ‘avatars’, collective portraits of the audience.
Statistics should motivate and communicate a company's strengths. The statement ‘96% started investing’ from a previous version of the site only says that people overcame the fear of investing, but how many people actually improved their finances? Who are these people? We asked colleagues to analyse the audience for their courses and identify something in common between such different people who come to school for knowledge.
Thanks to the automatic adaptation of the site on the Tilda builder for all mobile devices - no need to do double work, specially optimising the site or creating a mobile version. The design is created with adaptive layout in mind.
Актуальный адрес сайта: https://fin-ra.ru/
“
We spent time at the very beginning working out the entire structure of the site, and it was worth it to understand what semantic blocks are used by competitors, and taking into account our meanings, to compose our own. After that it became easier to work without unnecessary fantasies. Thanks to the skilful hands of the designer, everything turned into a full-fledged site, which you can't even say that it was made on a squiggle. The new corporate identity embodies the idea that we would like to convey to our clients. At the moment we have the coolest investment education website in Russia, for which we are very grateful.