SunWest

Role

Strategy, Copywriting

Scope

Rebrand, Website, Launch

In partnership with Attic Salt and alongside the incredible team at SunWest Credit Union, I helped shape a rebrand designed to change the way people think and feel about banking. From brand strategy and messaging to website revamp and launch copy, this was a chance to build something brighter from the inside out.

There's a lot more to this story. You can bank on it 😉

Banking has a sameness problem.

SunWest came to us at a turning point. Internally, the team knew exactly who they were: a member-owned credit union built on real relationships, a genuine commitment to financial well-being, and a willingness to challenge the way traditional banking operates.

Their bold spirit wasn’t shining through.

From the outside, SunWest was competing in a category where nearly everyone looked and sounded interchangeable. So alongside Attic Salt and the SunWest team, my job was to help uncover the idea strong enough to pull the brand out of that monotony—and find the words to make SunWest impossible to overlook.

Our goal was to bring banking back to what it should be. Today, people often default to big banks not out of loyalty, but convenience. Money becomes something to avoid. Autopilot feels easier… until it isn’t. Conversations about money can feel intimidating, so they get pushed aside.

That disconnect between people and their money became something I wanted to explore more deeply. Banking companies spend a lot of time talking about rates, products, and features, but very little time acknowledging how people actually feel about their finances.

Confused. Intimidated. Avoidant. Sometimes completely in the dark.

Where larger institutions prioritize transactions, SunWest leads with something harder to scale: genuine connection, guidance, and trust.

That distinction became my driving force. The opportunity was bigger than changing how people bank. It was about changing their relationship with money altogether, and positioning SunWest as the ally that could help light the way.

Bank on the Bright Side

The strongest creative territory captured SunWest’s inherent optimism and turned it into an ownable brand idea. Bank on the Bright Side became more than a tagline. It gave the brand a point of view and a promise of sunnier days ahead.

Inspired by the energy of a sunny day, light became our strategic thread: a symbol of transparency instead of fine print, guidance instead of confusion, and possibility instead of financial anxiety. But while SunWest became the source of that light, the spotlight always belonged to its members and the brighter financial futures ahead of them.

SunWest doesn’t speak bank.

I gave SunWest permission to break from the traditional language of financial institutions and bring some personality into the conversation. I developed a verbal identity that balances the complexities of financial education with the brand’s daring, human vibe.

Rather than dressing up the usual banking jargon, I found ways to make financial products and everyday money matters feel more relevant, approachable, and even a little fun.

We had one idea. A lot of places to make it real.

I worked across the ecosystem to translate the strategy into the actual experience of SunWest: restructuring and rewriting the website, shaping product and financial education messaging, developing launch communications, employee-facing materials, social content, card collateral, branch signage, and the hundreds of smaller moments where a brand either starts to feel real or falls apart. My role touched nearly every layer of the shift—from the strategic idea underneath the brand to the words members now encounter out in the world.