Aside (concept): fintech brand identity and app for freelancers

Self-initiated concept. Aside is a fictional business account for freelancers. Its clients, names and amounts are invented, and Aside is not a real product.

A freelancer's balance lies. The $2,400 that just landed isn't all theirs, and the tax bill arrives months later. Apps like Found and Lili already keep a tax bucket, but the number on the home screen still reads as money you can spend.

Every payment is a coin. Aside cuts it once and moves the tax slice aside. The logo, the app icon, the card and the split bar in the app all repeat that one move, so the brand explains the product.

One electric blue, which none of the big fintech brands owns, means "yours". One soft tint means "set aside", and it is never used for anything else. Host Grotesk carries everything, with tabular figures so money lines up.

Five screens built around one rule: the big number is always what you can spend. The split shows on the home screen, when a payment lands, on an invoice before you send it, on the quarterly tax estimate, and on a card that can only spend what's yours.

When a client pays, the screen turns blue and the coin splits in front of you. The headline is what you keep, not what you were paid. The rate is explained in one line and can be changed in one tap.

The same split on a bus-shelter poster, a tote bag and two card editions.

Photos from Unsplash (Jakub Żerdzicki, Kelly Sikkema, Mediamodifier, bram naus). The poster, bag and screen artwork are composited in perspective, and third-party signage was removed.