Equity Bank, 2006

In 2006, banking and access to financial services was reserved for those in cities, or those with higher incomes. It’s still unfortunately the case in many parts of the world, but Equity set out to change this with their mission to bank the unbanked, and has been a global pioneer in microfinance over the last two decades.

Equity Bank was a successful micro-finance building society that wanted to fast track its transition into a fully fledged bank. The complex expansion strategy included repositioning from its perception as a small regional bank to a national bank, depolarising the brand for scale, and introducing its bottom of the pyramid concept to new audiences.

Equity Bank was our first big client and a defining moment in ARK’s formation, as it was our largest client by far. The Equity brand symbolised what the bank represented - inclusivity and access for all. At a time when other banks were kicking out anyone with a balance below 2,000 bob, a customer at Equity could borrow 500 bob in the morning, buy and sell products with that, and repay the loan in the afternoon. It was (and still remains) an inclusive bank that made everyone feel welcome. We knew this was sensitive territory, and approached the work with the same patience and care we carry today. We won the contract because we listened keenly and acted carefully, before any of the creative would come to life.

Our work spanned over 4 years, and involved brand positioning, product development, channel innovation, marketing Strategy and Communication Campaigns.

We created communication standards for the brand’s visual and language identity coupled with powerful messages that repositioned Equity as a strong Kenyan bank, and highlighted product differentiation to help the brand gain widespread acceptability. ARK also developed a corporate strategy campaign that positioned Equity Bank as a global pioneer and thought leader in the field of micro-finance.

The brand has changed the banking sector’s attitude towards the “unbanked” population and caused a revolution in increased services and products for the new-to-bank and lower income tiers.

Toyota, 2026 

Fast forward to today, working with Toyota has been another defining moment in our journey. We began working with Toyota in 2024, on a new global mobility concept - The IMV Origin. A car that defies the odds, not only in how it came to life, but how many lives it can change.

Mobility is a privilege many of us would easily take for granted. On our daily commute, most of us won't give it a second though. Yet millions of people don't have a daily commute. It's simply not accessible - physically and/or economically. Toyota’s vision of Mobility for all addresses this squarely, and innovations like the IMV Origin are turning this vision to reality.

Our mission was to design a last mile cargo vehicle that helped bridge the huge mobility gap in many parts of Africa and across the world. Our product and system strategy was built on an unrelenting pursuit of affordability and practicality without compromise to durability, functionality and reliability.

The IMV Origin

The Toyota IMV Origin itself is a deliberately unfinished, modular utility vehicle platform designed to be completed, customised, and evolved locally – especially for emerging and rural markets.

It is a new take on what a vehicle can be. At its core, it is intentionally minimal: a durable chassis, essential mechanical systems, and a basic cab structure that provide the foundations for infinite flexibility and functionality. The open platform is designed to be completed and configured closer to where it will be used. This allows local businesses, workshops, and operators to customise the vehicle for different purposes, from cargo transport and shared mobility to agricultural applications and small business operations.

The IMV Origin was developed with emerging and infrastructure-constrained markets in mind, particularly in regions where mobility needs are highly varied and road conditions can be unpredictable. In these contexts, durability, affordability, ease of maintenance, and adaptability matter more than refinement or unnecessary complexity. By focusing on these fundamentals, this model is not just about selling vehicles, but enabling more locally relevant mobility solutions.

Ultimately, the IMV Origin represents a shift in thinking from product to platform. It is less a finished vehicle and more a starting point: a practical foundation that can evolve through local ecosystems, unlocking new business models, livelihoods, and mobility opportunities in markets that have historically been underserved by conventional automotive design.

What made it work?

Aside from the obvious virtual design and collaboration tools available today that make working remotely truly possible, it's the spirit of innovation. Experienced design leaders and incredibly talented and dedicated members from each team, an atmosphere where we could share openly, critique candidly, laugh loudly and drive each other to perfection, where each team cared not just about their role, but the collective outcome.

20 years ago, who'd have imagined that 8 teams across 3 different continents would be able to work so closely together to design and produce not only a brand new car, but create an emerging new vehicle category? Global-scale innovation is possible.

Our work with Toyota spanned over 2 years, and involved MaaS system design, product strategy and design of the vehicle dashboard panel.

Retrospective

Team & Studio

We’ve always been relatively small in numbers. We’d often say “we’re small enough to solve big problems”. When we took on Equity Bank in 2006, we were 4. That’s right, just 4. But we delivered and overdelivered – it’s in our DNA. 

We also leaned a lot more on our collective, where we’d call in talent from the wider ARK team to engage in specialised projects like animation and motion graphics.

Today, our core team of 12 amazing people lead product strategy & design, creative technology, brand building and business innovation initiatives.

Still boutique and bespoke in every sense, but big enough to handle the hugely ambitious projects and challenges.

Design: from the aesthetic, to leading the business innovation process

Back then, the creative field was so much narrower. “Design” often meant a print ad or maybe a bit of TV if you were lucky. Now, it’s everything at once: product, motion, UX, strategy, and creative processes used to build better things, and make things better. We’ve moved from creating things that were singular with focused outcomes, to this incredible multidimensional integrated world of experiences, where we can innovate and build in ways that were unimaginable when we started.

Collaboration: more disciplines, and more frequently.

20 years ago, collaboration meant physical meetings, emails and phone-calls. No online meetings, no Figma boards, no Whatsapp even. This meant our design process was a little more formal, with fewer check-ins and opportunities to collaborate.

Today, everything is an active conversation. We work in a state of constant (sometimes intentionally messy) collaboration because the products and brands we’re building are often too complex to be solved in a vacuum.

It’s not that global collaboration co-design wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago, it’s just how much easier and seamless it’s become.

Pace: due in 6 hours vs. due in 2 years

This is probably an unfair comparison, as one deadline is rooted in Advertising’s fast-paced world, and the other in Strategic Design and Innovation for Large Scale Manufacturing.

It’s a shift we definitely noticed as ARK transitioned from being an ad agency (2006~2010), to being more strategy-led for brand, business and product (2009~today). Advertising is driven by short term needs, while brand building is long-term. Both are important, but we were quickly drawn to doing deeper and more long-term work.

This transition from agency to full-service design firm happened naturally for us - the process of building a great ad is incredible - you learn so much about the organisation, product, consumer, landscape and push the boundaries of what success might look like.. and that insight in itself is worth so much to both client and agency, and would otherwise be wasted on just producing a single ad.

Introspect

What’s changed

Beyond the changes in our profession, context and tools - the scale of our responsibility has definitely shifted, where the work we do matters way beyond a single campaign or by simply making better things. We realise that our work impacts millions, shapes how sectors grow, how people make and sustain their livelihoods, how big a ripple effect of one single design decision can be, and how we can together shape the future we want to see.

What hasn’t

What hasn’t budged is our core - care and imagination - the two values that shape everything we do at ARK. The internal doubts, the odd ways of thinking, the obsession with detail, and the drive to make something visceral and honest are exactly the same as they were twenty years ago. We still have that same mix of inventive rigour and curious silliness in the studio. Experience just means we’ve learned how to harness that chaos to build products and brands that are useful and delightful well into the future.

To Equity Bank, Toyota, our multiple partners and clients who have made each project meaningful and challenging over these last 20 amazing years, we say thank you, asante, merci, ありがとう.