Rate – Black Excellence Campaign
Rate (formerly Guaranteed Rate) is an American mortgage company focused on expanding access to homeownership for marginalized communities. Rate’s Black Excellence campaign focused on the Black American demographic, emphasizing both personal and community empowerment through homeownership. The campaign targeted families as well as self-employed and small-business owners. We created static assets for billboards and for digital release across social media. In addition, we produced a customer testimonial series featuring real homeowners discussing their experiences with Rate and their path to homeownership.
Static asset credits: visual identity, asset creation. Dynamic asset credits: graphics visual identity, live video processing (color/sound/etc), narrative creation, motion graphics.
My Process
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To capture the essence of “Black Excellence,” I developed a design approach that felt rich, warm, and intentional. The goal was to evoke a sense of pride and legacy while remaining minimal enough to ensure the focus stayed on the people and communities whose stories anchor the campaign.
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The overall approach is photography-first: even though the shots are posed, they’re set in genuine environments to keep the campaign rooted in real spaces and everyday life. I used an accent serif font to add subtle elegance and contrast, while the overlapping color panels create structure and hint at the depth and interconnectedness of the community. The warm palette and clean layouts are designed to support the people in the images, keeping them at the center of the story.