{INTERCEPTOR}COLLINS | COLLINS
Case Study

Robinhood

Elevating an app into an ecosystem.

Industry
Technology, Financial
Stage
Growth

Founded in 2013 in response to the 2008 financial crisis and Occupy Wall Street, Robinhood introduced commission-free trading, democratizing finance by removing barriers like tradi...

Founded in 2013 in response to the 2008 financial crisis and Occupy Wall Street, Robinhood introduced commission-free trading, democratizing finance by removing barriers like trading fees and minimums. This innovation spurred industry wide changes. Major brokerages eliminated trading fees.

As Robinhood’s competitive edge became standard, a strategic imperative emerged: diversify its offerings with products like cash management, fractional shares, and IRAs to appeal to a broader market. However, its brand, known for budget-friendly trading appealing to a younger demographic, struggled with credibility as a broader financial services provider.

The company’s founders engaged COLLINS to help strike a balance between appealing to young traders and building credibility as a comprehensive financial platform.

Research into Robinhood's customer base dispelled the notion that investing is merely gambling, revealing a more apt metaphor: investors are futurists. Both jobs engage in forecasting trends, assessing risks, and adapting strategies based on evolving data. To invest, as the research suggested, is to imagine a brighter future and take the
first step towards securing it. That might be supporting it (i.e. renewable energy ETFs) or creating it (i.e early retirement).

COLLINS helped rebuild their brand and product experience around a simple promise: secure a brighter financial future.

COLLINS developed a future-focused brand and product experience that encourages customers to imagine better futures, providing help to secure them. Imaginative illustrations and bold information graphics are aimed to be both evocative and instructive. Visual metaphors are used to translate complicated topics like ‘ETFs,’ ‘Fractional Shares, ‘Bull Market’’ and even the ‘American Dream’ - into relatable concepts. An educational ethos is articulated and reinforced across the product ecosystem, from the company’s comprehensive “Learn” resource to its entertaining “Snacks” podcast.

Since that transformation, Robinhood launched products in cryptocurrency, gold, cash management, IPO access, recurring automatic investments, stock lending, IRAs, extended trading hours. The launch of these new products have positively influenced the number of funded customers and net deposits, indicating that users are responding well to Robinhood's expanded services.

COLLINS
Ben CrickKarin FyhrieErik Berger VaageTaamrat AmaizeAnjelica TriolaMackenzie PringleYeun KimVictoria ThomasLA HallMichael Di LeoPaul Jun
Robinhood
Robert ThompsonVictor BivolDrew NelsonElaine LinDaniel HaireZane BevanBaiju Bhatt
Illustration
Matias BaslaLiam CobbJaedoo LeeIlya Milstein

Augments

Augments are add-on components or properties that enhance a design system’s performance. They introduce new capabilities, expand functionality and improve how the system works across contexts.

Augments

Augments are add-on components or properties that enhance a design system’s performance. They introduce new capabilities, expand functionality and improve how the system works across contexts.

Memory Marker

A designed visual or experiential cue that anchors the brand in memory. This signature detail amplifies brand salience and mental availability, driving distinctiveness that supports market growth.

High Expressive Ratio

A performance property that signals a brand system’s ability to generate vast expressive range from minimal elements, resulting in a presence that is both concentrated and expansive.

Vertical Compatibility

A performance property that ensures the brand system maintains coherence across all organizational levels—master brand to sub-brand, service, or product. It preserves hierarchy while delivering a unified experience throughout the brand ecosystem.

Brand World System

Robinhood's visual world merges surreal imagination with sci-fi precision—crafting environments where financial futures feel both wondrous and attainable. Each scene balances organic fluidity with technological clarity, while minimalist details crystallize complex concepts into pure form. The result transcends mere aesthetics, creating a new visual language for financial optimism that resonates across the industry.

Custom Icon System

Robinhood's iconography emerges from its utopian vision—each symbol crafted with minimalist precision to counterpoint the rich illustration world. These elemental forms distill complex ideas into pure geometry, creating moments of quiet clarity within the brand's expansive visual language.

Validated Versatility

We pressure test our designs across every touchpoint and context—from app tiles to billboards, screens to swag. This rigorous performance testing ensures that your brand remains consistent, recognizable and effective everywhere it lives for as long as it lives.

Impact

Improved Market Legitimacy

Rebrand elevated Robinhood from outsider to a trusted platform and a dominant player in modern finance.

50%

First Time Users as a % of Total Base

First-time investors grew to over 50% of Robinhood’s total user base within two years.

143%

Growth in Net Cumulative Funded Accounts

Net Cumulative Funded Accounts grew 143% within two years of launch.

172%

Growth in Monthly Active Users

Monthly active users grew 172% within two years of launch, signaling sustained platform engagement.

7+

New Product Launches

Robinhood successfully expanded beyond free trades into crypto, retirement, cash management, credit and advisory.

Press

The Brand Identity

COLLINS and Robinhood combine to make investing accessible, affordable and engaging for all.

D&AD

For those who lack the privilege of generational wealth, it can be hard to break into investing.