Savings Bank Life Insurance

Redesigning a 100 year old brand

Role: Senior Designer & Front-end Developer

SBLI, founded more than 100 years ago, is one of the nation’s leading life insurance companies. For a number of years, I had the opportunity to lead design and front-end web development for the direct to consumer channel. In the process, I had the privilege of working with a dedicated and talented group of writers, digital strategists, and back-end web developers to help chart the future of SBLI’s direct to consumer channel.

Scope of work

One of my favorite parts of working at SBLI was the opportunity to work across a variety of media and disciplines. While my primary role on the team was to lead design and front-end web development, you’d regularly find me working with digital strategists, analyzing data to optimize conversion funnels, and implementing new technology to expand the company's capabilities. This multidisciplinary team approach allowed me to learn from my colleagues and grow within and beyond my primary specializations.

Completely reimagined UX/UI

SBLI’s primary method for generating digital leads was through a web app that provided a life insurance quote for prospective customers. In an effort to improve conversions and drive more users to complete an online application, I was tasked with completely rethinking the UX/UI of the tool. In doing so, I carefully analyzed all available data and took note of areas for improvement in the user experience. I took these learnings and redesigned and developed a new responsive web app that resulted in more options for the user, a slicker, more intuitive interface and a doubling of online applicants!

In the first week there was a 104% jump in completed applications.

Evolving a 100 year old brand

One of the first tasks when I joined SBLI was to take a fresh look at their visual brand identity. In years past, their visual system featured dark navy blues, a stone pattern, and black and white photography. Originally this style was intended to differentiate the brand but it also made for a cold look and feel that unintentionally enhanced the somber perception of life insurance. To correct this and realign the visual system to convey SBLI’s brand personality, I made some sweeping changes.

Realigning the visual system

SBLI wanted to focus on Main Street America, positivity, and protecting families and their futures. To begin building this more positive perception through visuals, I replaced black and white photos with more uplifting, color photography with an emphasis on realism and authenticity. I also chose a more vibrant color palette with friendlier, brighter hues of blue and red. This helped to underscore SBLI’s unique American heritage while adding warmth to the overall look and feel. You can also find playful illustrations throughout that help to make the topic more approachable and more accurately convey the down-to-earth, human culture you’ll find at SBLI.

Vector Illustration

At a B2B event, SBLI wanted to pay tribute to their founder, Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis for revolutionizing life insurance more than 100 years ago. This served as the perfect segue for looking towards the future with the same innovative spirit. Conceptually, I wanted to tie the past with the present. For both stylistic and functional reasons, I began with a black and white photo of Brandeis from the 1900’s and transformed it to a vibrant and colorful vector illustration that has a museum like quality with a modern vector twist.