Charles Stanley

Bringing digital to the core

Charles Stanley is one of the UK's oldest wealth management firms. I joined as Design Director to help transform its digital experience, leading the design of a new logged-in platform, website and scalable design system.

Working across research, service design and product design, I helped turn complex investment journeys into simpler, more intuitive experiences while creating the foundations for a more modern digital service.

The challenge

Charles Stanley was transforming from a traditional wealth management business into a more modern, digitally enabled service. But years of growth had created fragmented customer journeys, inconsistent experiences and technology that made change difficult.

We started by understanding the end-to-end experience, mapping key journeys and identifying where digital could remove friction or create new value. This gave the organisation a shared view of the experience and helped us prioritise where design could have the greatest impact.

A collage of six diagrams illustrating various financial planning questions and decision trees with color-coded nodes and connecting lines.
Screenshot of a collaborative digital workspace with sticky notes, participant icons, and annotations, likely from a workshop or meeting planning session.
Flowchart of a financial planning and onboarding process for Charles Stanley, showing steps from prospecting, saving, planning, choosing services, submitting requests, and online onboarding, with various screens and annotations.

Crafting a new digital identity

Alongside the product transformation, I led the evolution of Charles Stanley’s digital identity, creating a visual language that felt contemporary while retaining the trust and heritage of the brand.

  • Typography: We introduced a distinctive serif typeface to bring character and confidence to the digital experience.

  • Colour palette: We expanded the existing palette, creating greater flexibility across digital products.

  • The Kaleidoscope: I reimagined this cherished graphical device as a suite of flexible, personality-driven elements. I even named two “Charles” and “Stanley”, making content creation within the CMS more engaging and fun for the client.

Multiple overlapping infographics on a light beige background, featuring photos of women, a historic clock tower, key statistics about locations and assets, and buttons for finding a location or person.
Multiple overlapping infographics on a light beige background, featuring photos of women, a historic clock tower, key statistics about locations and assets, and buttons for finding a location or person.
Flowchart with eight arrows labeled Kate, Janet, Margaret, Charles, Wilbert, Doris, and Stanley interconnecting to create a zigzag pattern.

Website → A more confident digital presence

A strong identity adapts according to the job at hand. The website features vibrant, story-driven layouts that convey confidence, prestige, and warmth, standing out in a competitive market.

Screenshots of financial and investment service websites, featuring text about client care, investment strategies, company history, and team member profiles, with various images and graphics.

Account area → Rethinking the investor experience

The richness of the logged-in experience is simplified for task-focused users, the logged-in interface prioritises functionality while maintaining visual consistency with the public site. Features like portfolio X-ray, trading, and account management are designed with clarity and ease of use in mind.

Screenshots of a financial investment portfolio dashboard showing account summaries, stock graphs, and investment details.

Creating the foundations for scale

After validating the new design direction through testing, I led the creation of a comprehensive design system that would support all of Charles Stanley’s digital products moving forward. This new system not only aligned with the brand’s identity but also laid the foundation for future digital growth, providing scalability for new features and services.

Screenshot of the Charles Stanley website with notes and comments on sticky notes regarding website features, user experience, and feedback, surrounding the main page content.
Three slides from a business presentation with text, images of people, and geometric design elements. The first slide has a woman on a beach with the text, 'Let us help you create a secure financial future.' The second slide shows a smiling girl with sunglasses and the headline, 'Mandatory H1 Headline that fits 6 columns across.' The third slide features a geometric shape and the text, 'Fully managed service,' with a call-to-action button, 'Request a call back.'
Screenshot of a web page from Charles Stanley Design System showing a form with dropdown menus, including an error message in red that says 'This is the error message'. The page has a purple header, a sidebar menu on the left with various components, and code snippets visible below the form.
Screenshot of a webpage displaying a spacing and layout documentation table with tokens, values, ratios, and examples, with a sidebar menu on the left and CSS code on the right.

The impact

The work gave Charles Stanley a more coherent digital experience across its public website and logged-in services, alongside a scalable design foundation that could evolve with the organisation.

Next client story:

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