Colombia and Mexico Visual Identity

project

Nu MX & COL Visual Identity

client

Nubank

agency

Nu C.HUB

role

Design / Creative Direction

2022

Nu Mexico & Colombia

Visual Identity

Nubank is the largest digital bank outside of Asia. Between 2020 and 2021, driven by an aggressive international expansion plan, we co-created with Pentagram to evolve our visual identity.

Collaborating with high-performance teams across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, I led the strategic localization of this new creative direction for the Hispanic markets.

My role was to translate a brand that was iconic in Brazil into a completely new and challenging context—building trust from zero in markets dominated by traditional incumbents and low brand awareness.

Art Direction Rational - The Human Touch

To differentiate Nu from traditional banks, we doubled down on our core brand attribute: Humanity.
We moved away from the cold, "plastic" aesthetic typical of fintech renders. Instead, we introduced natural lighting, subsurface scattering, and organic reflections to the 3D assets. This approach gave the visuals a tactile, vivid quality, reinforcing that Nu is a warm, human-centric brand, even in a digital environment.

The Photos

To ensure speed-to-market without sacrificing quality, we developed an agile studio production model. The art direction for photography mirrored our 3D lighting logic—soft, natural, and warm. This created a seamless visual consistency between our physical photography and digital assets, establishing a cohesive brand atmosphere across all touchpoints during the launch.

Nu Card (Made with love)

For our expansion into Colombia and Mexico, we re-engineered the Nu card to align with local user insights, designing a physical connection that reinforced our core differentiator: the human touch.

Research indicated that in these regions, the perception of solidity and trust is directly linked to a horizontal card layout (unlike the vertical trend in Brazil).

We also prioritized UX/UI functionality: ensuring the PAN (Primary Account Number) remained visible on the front to assist users in recalling their PIN at payment terminals—a crucial friction point we solved through design.

The Motion

The motion language was designed to visualize Nu’s promise: liberating people from financial complexity.

We used motion to embody our values—Simple, Human, and Transparent. The animation principles feature human materials, the vivid shadows, fluid transitions, and rhythmic repetitions to represent a stylized, premium experience. The result is a motion system that feels less like a bank transaction and more like a fluid digital lifestyle experience.