SmartBe Investments.

Quantitative investing has a communication problem: the smarter the strategy, the harder it is to explain. SmartBe Investments built ETFs that give Canadian investors access to quantitative trading strategies — and needed a brand that made sophisticated feel simple rather than suspicious.

Our work began with structure, well before the refresh, when the firm was still SmartBe Wealth and its product line was set to grow. We weighed a branded house, sub-brands, endorsed brands and a house of brands against current and future products, and settled on sub-brands: master brand and products sharing the weight. A naming system followed, building each product name from its market and strategy, along with a logo system that distinguishes markets by the angle of their lines — so every new fund slots in without reinventing anything.

Financial services branding runs on a narrow track. Too playful and you lose credibility; too austere and you look like every other fund. Our refresh threaded it with precise brand graphics, confident typography, and a palette that says rigorous without saying impenetrable.

The system carries through to an investor-facing website designed to do what the category rarely manages: explain quantitative products clearly enough that a first-time visitor leaves understanding what they'd be buying. For a firm whose entire pitch is complexity simplified, the brand now practices what it preaches.