Northgate manage significant portfolios but were losing mandates at pitch stage to firms a fraction of their size with better-looking materials.
Branding · 2024
Northgate Capital — brand & website
A boutique investment firm given the presence of an institution — without losing the reason clients chose them.
- Client
- Northgate Capital
- Industry
- Financial Services
- Services
- Brand Identity, UI/UX, Website Design & Build
- Year
- 2024
01
Project overview
02
The challenge
Look institutional enough to be trusted with the money, personal enough to keep the boutique advantage. Most finance branding only manages one.
03
Our approach
We treated credibility as a design problem: how quickly can a prospect verify who is behind the firm, what they have done, and how they think. Every page answers one of those three.
04
Creative direction
Deep navy and warm stone, a high-contrast serif with generous margins, real partner photography instead of stock, and data presented as design rather than decoration.
05
Execution
Identity refresh, pitch document system, and a hand-built website with a partner directory, insight library and a gated performance section.
Results & impact
Pitch conversion improved materially inside two quarters, with inbound enquiries arriving pre-qualified.
48%
Increase in pitch wins
2.1x
Inbound enquiries
0.9s
Largest contentful paint
96
Lighthouse performance
Deliverables
- Identity refresh & guidelines
- Pitch document system
- Website design (12 templates)
- Hand-coded build, no builders
- Partner photography direction
- CMS training
Client testimonial
For the first time our materials match the quality of the work. It shows in the room.
Imran Sheikh, Managing Partner