Banca Ifis
A success story
Banca Ifis is a challenger bank that has been supporting the real economy for nearly forty years Thanks to a unique, specialized, and diversified business model, it meets the needs of both individuals and small to medium-sized enterprises. A renewed identity has defined the brand’s new market positioning, including its value proposition. Inarea was entrusted with shaping the Brand Architecture at the corporate level, as well as for products, services, and special projects, and with developing the brand’s communication languages and tools. Additionally, Enrico Giaretta, Inarea’s Sonic Brand Director, created the brand’s sonic identity—not only the main brand theme but also a complete on- and offline sound kit. The brand now sits at the center of a unified, simplified system, offering a coherent and consistent proposition.
Brand Architecture and Editorial Design: When a Single Mark Becomes a System of Expressions
The rebranding project revolves around the payoff “The value of growing together” and the symbol of the flower, which encapsulates multiple layers of meaning. On one hand, it represents evolution and transformation; on the other, the concept of a digital bloom evokes a forward-looking vision rooted in tradition. The flower is composed of a circular graphic element symbolizing the bank’s beating heart—its people—while the modular language illustrates the various business units generated from a single core matrix.
The new brand’s color palette draws from both digital transformation and the colors of nature, with a progressive range of tonal scales that convey motion, depth, and transparency. The Brand Architecture is built around the flower icon as a constant reference point in the bank’s identity universe. It creates a unified and simplified system that coherently and consistently rationalizes the bank’s pre-existing brand ecosystem.
Sonic Identity Design: The Concept of Growth, Expressed Through Music
For a bank that adopted the payoff “The value of growing together,” it was essential to convey the concept of growth through music.
To this end, drawing inspiration from “La tartine de beurre” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—one of the bank’s cultural touchstones—a musical theme was composed for Banca Ifis in the key of C major, exploring the infinite range of intervals possible within a ten-note scale.
Thanks to a wide range of variations—using both real and imagined instruments—the glissato becomes not just a sound logo, but a true expression of sonic growth, embodied in a gesture that transcends the constraints of traditional musical structure. From the main musical theme, several functional sound elements were derived, including email in and out notifications, a battery alert, and a ringtone.
