New Launch: Lessons from a Growing Investment Bank

In late 2021, we published a post about a boutique investment bank embracing their independence with a striking brand overhaul.

The firm’s new website is now live and it teaches a few important lessons about standing apart from the big banks and long-established competitors. 

Lesson #1: Get right to the point.

Most people, when presenting their life’s work, have a tendency to pile on. There’s always more that can be said, always more detail to add—but is it driving anyone to action? Does anyone but you really care about what you’re saying? If someone does show interest, what are you going to give them that they haven’t already seen?

While it was built with a full sitemap and navigation framework, the Gravitas site is not overladen with text-heavy content. It’s designed to show the user what the firm does, what makes them valuable and where to go for practical information (like services, history and contact details). 

Lesson #2: Be consistent.

Building on our initial brand focus of black-and-white minimalism and independence messaging, we constructed the Gravitas website to be consistent all the way through. 

The impression you get in the first 10 seconds should only be deepened and fleshed out in the time it takes to explore the site completely. It takes careful image selection and content planning to achieve continuity without getting repetitive, but the effort it takes is worth the effect it has on the user. 

Lesson #3: Use variety to hold attention. 

While this may appear to contradict our consistency lesson, variety is an important factor in capturing and holding the attention of your audience. 

This includes visual interest from the flow of text and layout of content, the combination of imagery, graphics and white space, and the integration of multimedia. The Gravitas site uses a lively mixture of static and dynamic elements, written copy and video content—to deliver a consistent message designed to resonate.

While these lessons were drawn from our work with investment banks and asset managers, they hold true for retail firms and private wealth advisors alike. A well-planned website with polished, consistent content is the single most important facet of your online identity can help bolster your entire outward brand.