Santander Consumer Finance—the car financing arm of Santander—approached Nimbletank with the ambition to create an upstream digital platform. The goal: combine their financing proposition with their dealership network to launch a second-hand car retail site capable of challenging the dominance of autotrader.co.uk.
The work that followed sadly never made it to market, sitting under wraps for years. But I share it now as a strong example of the branding work I delivered as the sole visual creative on the account. Santander provided the name, and from there I developed a dynamic, ownable visual identity.
The design was rooted in the shape of a UK number plate, which evolved through visual iteration into a form that retained the number plate reference while subtly incorporating Santander’s then-signature square corner brackets. It also introduced a flexible concept—the word “red” could act as a placeholder for interchangeable adjectives within the logo lockup, giving the brand room to play in execution.
The work was presented during a multi-day remote workshop and was selected to represent the platform with minimal feedback. Unfortunately, the project was pulled before it went live. What follows are the original concepts, as approved by Santander Consumer Finance.