Itaú Unibanco
Overview
Itaú Unibanco is the largest private bank in Brazil and one of the leading financial conglomerates in Latin America.
This project was developed during my time at Oliver Latin America, where I worked as a UX Designer. I had the opportunity
to lead all stages — from initial research to user experience design, including visual design and prototyping. With the support
of a dedicated team, I was able to take on the challenge end to end and deliver a strategic and consistent solution.
Making Itaú’s Brand Guidelines more accessible
To begin any project with a client, it's essential to start with their Brand Guidelines — and with Itaú, it's no different. This material is designed to ensure the correct use of the brand’s identity, maintaining consistency across all applications.
Using the guide as a starting point not only aligns visual expectations but also strengthens brand perception at every touchpoint. It provides direction on everything from proper logo and color usage to typography and graphic elements, ensuring that all communications clearly and consistently reflect Itaú’s values and personality.
Modernizing access to Brand Materials
There was an initial attempt to centralize the distribution of brand assets through a website created internally by the bank itself. However, this system had a significant limitation: only Itaú employees could access it. As a result, there was still a constant reliance on a staff member to share the most up-to-date files.
The adoption of the Bynder platform introduced a more efficient and flexible solution. It enabled easier access not only for internal teams but also for external partners. The platform offered more precise control over which content could be accessed by each type of user, dividing access between those with login credentials and those without. Even without a login, users could access assets — including brand guidelines — via shareable links, making the process much faster and more accessible for third parties.
The goal was to make the access to Itaú’s brand guidelines simpler and more efficient.
Objectives
The user's goal is to access the materials from Itaú’s Brand Guidelines in order to apply them correctly when creating advertising pieces. From a business perspective, the objective is to simplify and streamline this access, creating a faster and more secure workflow for using the brand’s assets.
Impact
If the material is well received, we can apply its standardization across other Itaú brand guidelines, creating a consistent and strategic workflow for the use of brand assets.
Challenge
Our challenge was to adapt material originally developed in PDF format to a platform with several technical limitations. This raised important questions such as: “What will be the hierarchy of downloadable assets?”, “How can we present the color palette in an accessible way?”, and “How should we showcase visual application examples?”. These questions became the starting point for experimentation and the development of initial wireframes, guiding key decisions around structure and navigation.
Exploring
How can we overcome the platform’s limitations to achieve the best results?
Navigation
How can we ensure users find assets quickly and easily?
Access Management
How can we create an inclusive access experience for users with and without credentials?
Research
Analysis
To understand the hierarchy of information in different contexts, we examined how it's structured in various design systems such as Uber, Salesforce, and IBM.
Understanding the users
Clearly defining who we were designing for was essential to guide the operational decisions of the project and ensure the solutions were aligned with real user needs.
Design System
Based on insights from the analysis phase, we developed initial design solutions that led to the creation of UI patterns and components, ensuring visual consistency and clarity in navigation.
Project Iteration and improvement
After the first round of user testing, along with feedback and critiques from the Product Design, Copywriting, and Marketing teams, we gained a clearer understanding of the direction to follow — and what needed to be rethought.
Based on these insights, we moved forward with key improvements: we incorporated accessibility tools, expanded the color palette to better reflect Itaú’s visual identity, added more interactivity with visual elements, and made the content even more practical and straightforward from the start. We also introduced an image bank and photographic guidelines to enhance the visual experience.
We maintained close collaboration with the teams to continuously validate design decisions and ensure consistency across the final delivery.
Impact
We successfully launched the project in August 2022. While there is always room for improvement, we continue to collaborate with the teams in an ongoing process of learning and iteration, aiming to consistently deliver the best possible updates to users.
This update has already delivered meaningful results: the distribution flow of brand materials has become more efficient, and the visual consistency of advertising assets has strengthened, more authentically reflecting Itaú’s brand identity. With these advancements, we’ve moved closer to our main goal — making access to Itaú’s Brand Guidelines easier and more effective.