UNITED ARAB BANK
A new era, built on a trusted foundation.
Services
UI Design
UX Design
Motion Design
Project Management
Client Presentations
Info
UAB’s brand and website experience were outdated. In a market where trust and clarity matter, the experience no longer reflected where the bank wanted to go. We were brought in to tackle both sides of the problem: a full rebrand and a new website to bring it to life.
The starting point
Before the rebrand, UAB had an established identity that had been in place for years. Our job was to move it forward while keeping the familiarity and trust people already associated with the bank.
Behind the scenes
Branding
For the logo, I explored some more creative and experimental animation ideas, but UAB wanted to keep the mark itself simple. So I kept the direction restrained and focused on making the animation work with the existing form. I also used this as a chance to try out Cavalry, a new animation app I hadn't worked with before. I also created the final showcase video, which was used internally and on social to introduce the finished rebrand.
First UI Explorations
For the website, we started by looking at other banking and premium websites, benchmarking what worked well and exploring how they used type, colour, imagery and layout. We used that research to develop two directions for UAB: a lighter, warmer route and a darker, more premium one.
I worked on the second route, pushing the brand further into a premium space while making sure it still felt trustworthy and approachable. As part of this, I tried out Spline to explore a 3D object for the route, testing how far we could push the interactive side of the design. I also helped refine route 1 alongside my director. The client ultimately chose the lighter direction, but the premium route is still being used as the reference for future premium sections of the site.
Building the Site
From there, the project grew to around 120 pages across desktop and mobile. I worked on the website alongside another mid-weight designer, under the direction of the Digital Creative Director. We built templates for recurring page types so we didn’t have to start each page from scratch, and kept the Figma files organised and easy for the developers to work from.
The idea of using colour to tell things apart came from the earlier route exploration, where the two directions had their own distinct colourways. Light blue for the mass, dark blue for premium, grey for Islamic banking which helps the users to be able to tell services apart at a glance.
Closing the Project
Partway through the project, our UX lead and project manager left, and I stepped in to take on most of their responsibilities for the rest of the project. Alongside the design work, I took over a number of UX decisions, including how the “Find Us” map should work across desktop and mobile.
Near the end of the project, my colleague moved onto another project, so I stayed with UAB through to launch. I worked directly with the developers to deal with issues as they came up, from providing extra documentation to reworking parts of the design when needed. Both the new brand and website launched in 2026.