Objective

Open Banking forced UK banks to let customers share their account data with third parties. It is one of the most consequential pieces of financial regulation of the last decade and almost nobody outside the industry can explain what it does.

In 2019 the Open Banking Implementation Entity commissioned a review of the first year of roll-out. The design problem: the report had to cover history, technical architecture and future direction in one document, for an audience running from developers to select committees.

Creative response

The final report was managed, written and designed in-house. Illustration and infographic development sat with the creative function, working from a first copy draft.

• Illustration and infographics from the draft. Visual language developed against the narrative's tone rather than applied to finished copy
• Complexity, translated. The technical sections turned into visuals that carry the mechanism, not just decorate the page
• A 60-page report. Published online and printed as a stakeholder brochure
• Syndicated assets. The report cut down into GIFs and banners for web and social

• Illustration and infographics from the draft. Visual language developed against the narrative's tone rather than applied to finished copy
• Complexity, translated. The technical sections turned into visuals that carry the mechanism, not just decorate the page
• A 60-page report. Published online and printed as a stakeholder brochure
• Syndicated assets. The report cut down into GIFs and banners for web and social

Results

PRINT + ONLINE, dual publication

GIFS + BANNERS, syndicated asset set

A 60-page report, published online, printed for stakeholders, and cut down into a social asset set. The report-plus-derivatives pattern is the one that recurs across the whole financial-services record: the document is the anchor, the cutdowns are the reach.

The work