How JKR used the letter ‘i’ to give Intuit a sweeping rebrand
You’ve heard of Mailchimp , TurboTax , Credit Karma, and Quickbooks; and chances are good you might even be able to picture their logos or recall a memorable ad. But what do you know about their parent company, Intuit ? The most likely answer to that question ( not much ) is one of the main reasons that Intuit approached the branding agency Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR ) a year and a half ago to…
In 2022, Intuit approached branding agency Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR) to revamp its identity. The company had spent nearly a decade expanding into a broad financial tech platform, acquiring Credit Karma and Mailchimp in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Intuit was investing in AI-powered and human experts to enhance user experience across its product suite.
The agency's chief creative officer, Tosh Hall, noted that Intuit lacked a real identity and seemed invisible in the digital technology space. The team's task was to create a memorable brand, an objective that seemed challenging given Intuit's featureless corporate image. To achieve this, the team focused on a single letter of the alphabet, the letter "i."
The rebranding team at JKR worked on transforming Intuit's wordmark from a technical uppercase sans serif to a lowercase serif. This change resulted in a lowercase "i" with a flag serif protruding to the left, resembling a waving friend when animated. This quirk then became the navigational tool guiding users through Intuit's new brand.
The "i" also introduced users to Intuit Intelligence, a system connecting users with AI-powered chatbots and human experts. This concept was visually represented through color-coded "doers" dots, making Intuit's AI and human intelligence easily recognizable. Through this approach, JKR aimed to turn Intuit from a featureless corporation into a brand with personality.
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