12 years a client
2013 to 2024 Source: NDG invoice records
ABC Funds
Value investment funds, Toronto, managed since 1988
What we did
- Website redesign
- French website
- Brand identity
- Fund sub-brands
- KYC forms
- Support 2016 to 2024
(01) The task
The task
The firm had managed value funds since 1988 and its website was built in-house in HTML: every fund update meant calling a developer, and the site showed none of the energy of the people running it.
They wanted to break new ground in financial web design without breaking AODA, and they wanted staff to update fund information themselves.
Two years later the same firm asked for a brand that would hold a growing family of funds together under one name.
ABC Funds is a family of value investment funds managed by I.A. Michael Investment Counsel Ltd. since 1988. Its president, Irwin A. Michael, is the firm: a Chartered Financial Analyst known for his money management acumen, a former director of the Toronto Society of Financial Analysts and a sought-after speaker. The old website, built in-house in HTML, did not show that. In Irwin’s words: “Our old website didn’t have the energy we wanted to exhibit to people.”
The firm talked to several agencies. New Design Group was the one that pitched the mechanics of the financial field and the audience, not only the look. We won the website, then the Value Investigator research site, then, two years later, the brand identity for the whole fund family. Everything on this page comes from the case the firm approved at the time and from our own invoice records; the years are the invoiced years.
(02) The work
What we did
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01
Website redesign on WordPress
A new structure for a site with an enormous amount of information, a corporate blue, bold imagery and a sans-serif type. Staff update fund performance in a CMS instead of calling a developer. Dedicated hosting recommended and set up.
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02
The founder as the brand
Irwin A. Michael, the portfolio manager, became the face of the site: videos on the home page, a personal investment philosophy page, monthly podcasts fed to iTunes. Corporate and personal branding combined. The obvious move was a corporate-looking site; the firm's strength was its portfolio manager, so the site was built around him.
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03
Email alerts and calls to action
A double opt-in sign-up feeding the firm's e-blast database, 'Invest with Us' and download buttons on the home page, a Recent News banner on every page.
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04
Accessibility and analytics
An AODA accessibility layer (font size, colour overlay, readability mode) and Google Analytics set up to see which pages work.
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05
French website and the Value Investigator
A French version of the site in 2014, and a redesign of the Value Investigator, the firm's research site where investors look up the companies the funds buy.
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06
Brand identity and fund sub-brands
In 2015 to 2016, a master brand logo for ABC Funds and a unique identity for each fund, tied together by one design language and palette and told apart by icon and colour. Tagline: Invest your money where we invest ours.
(03) The result
The result
12 years a client
- ABC Funds stayed a client for twelve years: website 2013 to 2014, French version 2014, brand identity 2015 to 2016, KYC forms 2014 and 2018, maintenance and hosting every year from 2016 to 2024.
- The firm's own words at the time: a lot of positive comments on the redesigned website, and a site they expected to be an effective marketing tool for years.
“When we met with New Design Group the lights went on. Another agency was very much recommended but we didn't feel their vision was a good fit. We're entrepreneurs: we wanted to work with another entrepreneur.”
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