For those who’re something like me, the phrase ‘tax season’ sends a primordial shudder down my backbone. Fortunately, with the digitization of tax submitting and the proliferation of apps, gone are the times of hauling out the dusty receipt field annually to jigsaw your return collectively like a manic crime scene detective..
On this dynamic panorama of digital tax submitting, Taxfix has emerged as Europe’s main cell tax platform, assuaging individuals’s fears about taxes and funds whereas making advanced tax methods accessible to everybody. With a confirmed observe file of producing over three billion euros in tax refunds, Taxfix, based in 2017, has transitioned from a disruptor to a market chief. This evolution prompted the necessity for a strategic rebranding effort undertaken by Kallan & Co — a Helsinki-based design studio for technology-driven companies that transforms expertise into significant model and product experiences.
As Taxfix skilled exponential development and strengthened its market presence by means of strategic acquisitions, together with the notable Steuerbot, the corporate wanted to redefine its model from technique to expression. Kallan & Co confronted crafting a model that asserted Taxfix’s bold management place and resonated with current and potential clients and workers. The purpose was to align Taxfix’s model id with its multi-product and multi-platform enlargement, making a model that confidently communicated its mission to the world to construct belief and encourage advocacy at each buyer interplay level.
II had the chance to ask the Kallan & Co group to dig additional into their course of for Taxfix; Luca Picardi, Lead Strategist & Head of Model Technique, and Hannu Koho, Design Director, shared their responses with me under.
(Interview edited for readability and size.)
The central thought of ‘Repair Finance for All’ is highly effective. How did Kallan&Co be certain that the idea translated throughout the visible, verbal, and experiential parts of the Taxfix model? Any particular design or communication methods that performed a vital position?
Luca Picardi: At its core, ‘Repair Finance for All’ is an all-encompassing concept that drives every thing Taxfix. This spirit informs the corporate’s tradition and behavior — reinforcing its position on the earth to make the advanced and messy monetary world extra accessible and approachable to anybody. Fixing taxes is simply the beginning of their journey.
The first artistic problem was to seize the invigorating feeling and advantage of buyer empowerment that Taxfix offers whereas balancing it with the calm and credible reassurance of its monetary experience. The purpose was to create a model able to being exact and pragmatic throughout taxing occasions and celebratory throughout clients’ extra rewarding moments. This duality runs all through the model, from the tone of voice and pictures to color and typography.
With Taxfix evolving right into a multi-product and multi-platform firm, how did the design group handle the problem of sustaining a cohesive model id throughout completely different merchandise and platforms whereas permitting room for individuality?
Luca Picardi: Taxfix’s enlargement right into a multi-product and multi-platform firm is an ongoing and evolving course of, with a long-term trajectory nonetheless unfolding. Quite a few choices are pending, and its last route is but to be decided.
We have been initially of this fast-changing journey throughout our venture. We explored varied model structure fashions to swiftly take a look at situations throughout the Taxfix ecosystem. We simulated future merchandise’ potential appear and feel, experimenting with completely different color schemes and fine-tuning visible parts. Every iteration allowed us to evaluate how particular person merchandise might keep a definite id whereas remaining seamlessly built-in into the overarching Taxfix model.
This future-proofing course of helped outline a extremely complete and cohesive last model system in every thing from an intensive standardised color palette vary to a deeply responsive typeface selection that works arduous in any and all advertising or product contexts.
The emphasis on simplicity, experience, and consumer empowerment is obvious in Taxfix’s rebrand. Are you able to share examples of design selections or parts you particularly included to convey these model values to customers?
Hannu Koho: Every model factor was fastidiously chosen to embrace various ranges of simplicity, experience, and consumer empowerment. Our artistic course of started with the important thing signature monetary motifs that served a twin objective. These symbols offered numerous communication potentialities to simplify and information individuals’s monetary journeys, encompassing every thing from taxes to financial savings; in addition they functioned as cropping units, putting clients on the literal centre stage of the model. All of this underpins a central worth of Taxfix – making finance match individuals, not the opposite approach round.
The chosen typeface, ABC ROM, strikes an ideal steadiness of sturdy precision and experience whereas retaining distinctive quirks and humane traits. It turned a vital software in constructing buyer confidence by means of the ‘Taxfix voice,’ which is approachable and knowledgeable. Moreover, ROM successfully addressed particular challenges within the German market, Taxfix’s largest, by accommodating the prolonged nature of German phrases, notably in tax-related content material. The varied widths proved invaluable for clear communication, whether or not in distinguished headlines on advertising billboards or detailed physique copy throughout the app. On the subject of taxes, the superb print issues.
Color emerged as one other essential factor in conveying the model’s values. We refined a hotter vary of inexperienced shades — from extra vivid to muted and darker tones. Our intention was to maintain the ‘inexperienced thread’ from the unique model however embed it with extra versatility, that means, and, importantly, vitality. To breathe extra life into the model past inexperienced, we launched a set of secondary colors, enabling Taxfix the flexibleness to talk to completely different mindsets, feelings, and wishes. The palette was impressed by the assorted colors of the Euro money notes, given Taxfix’s European roots, with its key markets at present in Germany, Italy, and Spain. These embody hues of lilac, gold, and blue. Every color provides a novel dimension to the model — speaking every thing from calmness and credibility to confidence.
Contemplating Taxfix’s dedication to placing clients center-stage, how did the design group be certain that the rebrand resonates with the varied wants and preferences of the consumer base? Have been there any user-centric design ideas adopted in the course of the course of?
Luca Picardi: Many firms declare they’re all about their clients however fall quick in observe. Taxfix, nonetheless, really lives as much as its dedication. Proper from the preliminary pitch assembly to each subsequent venture session, the shopper persistently got here first, serving because the tenet of our conversations and the structural basis of the complete venture course of.
This customer-skewed method lived by means of each side of our work, from the great buyer analysis offered by Taxfix to the proactive buyer testing embedded at varied phases of our branding venture. We ran buyer testing for 2 of our model prototype ideas and, ultimately, the ultimate idea, involving hundreds of shoppers. These testing phases emerged as essential milestones, guaranteeing that our decision-making course of wasn’t confined solely to inside views however was additionally influenced by the exterior world.
This extremely collaborative method with end-users performed a big position in refining our understanding of their wants and preferences, in the end shaping a model that resonates authentically with its viewers.
With Kallan & Co’s strategic rebranding efforts, Taxfix has efficiently developed right into a multi-product and multi-platform firm, solidifying its place as Europe’s go-to digital tax platform. The brand new model id, centered round ‘Repair Finance for All,’ displays Taxfix’s dedication to buyer empowerment and units the stage for continued development and innovation within the monetary expertise area.
