Blackwater Capital
Situation Analysis
Blackwater Capital, an innovative and well-situated investment banking firm, came to us with a very standard web presence. It was flat – with no style or creativity. It used only stock images which conveyed a fairly generic representation of Wall Street. It was middle of the road to the point of being invisible. How could we make it better?
Recommendation
After a series of management team interviews, several themes continued to emerge. We attempted to condense these themes to a series of thoughts: mavericks with old school training, innovative within existing standards, flexible to a fault, everything old is new again.
We attempted to design a website that would suggest that this boutique lending firm had its roots in the most solid of Wall Street reputations (the heritage of the management team was steeped in old school Wall Street firms ... that they could solve the problems that big banks couldn't with innovative lending solutions (perhaps combining solutions to form hybrids) ... that the bankers were each part of the management team and that clients wouldn't be talking to a series of levels before getting somewhere.
Solution
Our first thought was to activate the name Blackwater and make it instantly memorable. Our second idea was to animate the site, using the most venerable of Wall Street icons, The Wall Street Journal and the financial tombstone, imparting the ideas of experience, knowledge and quality. Lastly, we wanted to celebrate two other strengths, the diverse geography of the firm and its management team.