ANNA aims to make it easier for creatives to do business.
A new financial service designed especially for creatives has been unveiled. Say hello to ANNA, a refreshingly human admin assistance app which lives up to its acronym: Absolutely No Nonsense Admin. It comes complete with an appropriately personable, doodle art-based identity from the minds of Michael Wolff, NB Studio and Alice Bowsher, and promises to make it much easier for creatives to stay on top of money matters.
ANNA is an entirely digital platform that addresses the unique admin needs of SMEs and professionals who build their business on creativity, including anyone in the design and architecture sectors. Tailored towards creative professionals at all levels, from sole traders to full-blown agencies, ANNA combines a business account, debit card and a human and artificial intelligence assistant into the ANNA current account. It also comes with a card that can be accessed through the app.
ANNA brings together AI and human intelligence
By bringing together artificial intelligence with human insights, ANNA provides a range of services designed to make the lives of creatives easier. These include sending and paying invoices, analysing how much you're owed and by whom, and the ability to outsource invoice payments and details to the app.
According to the team behind the app, this range of tools is something that has been sorely missing from the lives of creatives. "As a creative business strategist, I’ve observed the struggles that small business owners go through dealing with admin," says ANNA's chief design officer, Daljit Singh.
"The creative industries are worth over £90 billion to the UK economy, yet there isn’t a single service out there that is specially aimed at making running a creative business easier. ANNA changes all this; it will improve productivity with the main aim of saving people time so they are freed up to do more of the things they love."
The playful illustrations by Alice Bowsher reflects ANNA's creative approach
When it came to designing a look for ANNA, the new way of banking needed a new approach to aesthetics. "Traditionally, there's no place for emotion in finance; we wanted the visual identity to embody the opposite of that," explains Nick Finney of NB Studio.
"As a small business owner, you're there to do something you love. The identity we created features illustrations by Alice Bowsher, whose charming, playful drawings help make Anna an approachable and relatable brand. The warmth of the terracotta orange throughout the website, digital platforms and collateral stands in sharp contrast to the traditional cold blues of banks, corporations and traditional fintech."
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"Meticulous care has gone into developing the brand," adds designer and creative adviser Michael Wolff.
"ANNA is bold yet self-effacing. It's entertaining because what's the point of being dull? It is entertaining in an apt and restrained manner. Above everything, ANNA is practical and no nonsense. Everything about the brand identity reflects the communities ANNA serves."
Send invoices, get paid, and seek help, all with ANNA
ANNA is currently available to use in beta and is onboarding its first 2,000 customers. Will you be one of them? If so, you'll have free access to ANNA for three years.
Dom Carter is a freelance writer who specialises in art and design. Formerly a staff writer for Creative Bloq, his work has also appeared on Creative Boom and in the pages of ImagineFX, Computer Arts, 3D World, and .net. He has been a D&AD New Blood judge, and has a particular interest in picture books.
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