Nickel & Crime

Financial True‑Crime Podcast 📻

Role: Brand & Design Lead
Client: Early Warning Services, LLC
Year: 2022

Overview

Early Warning, the fintech company behind Zelle®, sought a unique way to humanize financial fraud and bring brand personality into a heavily regulated space. The goal: to educate both B2B partners and consumers about fraud with impact, through memorable storytelling—not dry compliance messaging.

The Creative Idea

Turn boredom into curiosity by packaging real financial crime stories in the format of a true‑crime podcast. The concept: immersive narrative episodes that conclude with practical safety tips. This format allowed the brand to entertain, educate, and elevate its voice beyond typical fintech communications.

Role & Process

Led brand identity and visual storytelling across podcast launch assets—including logo, social, event, and content templates.
Worked cross-functionally with marketing, compliance, and external partners to ensure accuracy and maintain brand voice.
Designed branded templates and partner kits supporting podcast distribution across touchpoints (web, email, social, events).

Creative Approach

Research & Development

Building on moodboards provided by the internal team, I explored typographic personalities, bold palettes, and brand-adjacent color systems. A recurring motif—a piggy-bank-shaped coin—emerged as a versatile symbol, representing both financial value and character. This "piggy-coon coin" added whimsy while reinforcing thematic depth.

Strategy & Concept

A cute-tensions paradox

I embraced the idea of “cute tensions”—a playful paradox reflecting the contrast between the severity of financial crime and the levity of storytelling. The name Nickel & Crime became a springboard for two main character icons:

A thoughtfully saving piggy bank
A quirky, trash-bandit raccoon

Together, they became symbolic of the tension between good financial behavior and chaotic fraud schemes—brought to life through illustrative storytelling.

Logo & Wordmark: A custom lock-up using Early Warning’s brand typeface—with added typographic flair for personality and memorability
Color Palette: A fresh, saturated set of hues that referenced the parent brand while bringing in digital energy and a sense of fun
Character Design: Stylized piggy and raccoon icons that became recurring mascots for the podcast’s tone, used across formats
Scalable System: Designed to perform well on small digital surfaces (e.g., album art) and in large-scale environments (e.g., live broadcast spaces)

Design System

The Impact

Award-winning: Nickel & Crime won two Signal Awards and two W³ Awards for branded podcast excellence. It was also recognized with a Bronze from the Native Advertising Institute for Best Podcast.
Stand-out in B2B audio: Named one of the most creative branded podcasts by Lower Street and featured among best in white‑collar crime content.lowerstreet.co
Helped reshape Early Warning’s reputation—positioning the company as a creative educator in financial safety.

What I Learned

How to make fintech feel human through narrative.
How to build trust and entertainment utility—while navigating compliance constraints.
How to scale storytelling across multiple touchpoints and audiences with coherence and impact.