Northwest Federal Credit Union
Northwest Federal Credit Union is one of the largest credit unions in the Washington, DC region, serving members across the DMV. The work, through Bravely, came down to three fronts that fed each other: a full website redesign, a refreshed brand as it shows up in market, and the marketing calendar that runs on top of both.
Partway through, the assignment got a marquee addition. Northwest Federal took naming rights to the Washington Commanders' home field, now Northwest Stadium, and became the team's official credit union. A regional financial brand suddenly had to hold its own next to an NFL one, in the stadium, on the broadcast, and everywhere the partnership showed up.
A credit union website carries more than it looks like it does. It has to explain a wide product line, checking and savings, loans, credit cards, business, wealth, and insurance, without burying anyone. It has to move rate-driven promotions that change with the market. And it has to feel like a place people trust with their money, which is a harder brief than it sounds.
The redesign had to serve all of that at once, and then flex to carry the biggest brand moment in the institution's history without looking like a different company had shown up to run it.
Discovery, a working sitemap, and an information architecture that could hold a broad product line without making members hunt. The structure came first, the pixels second.
A homepage and a template kit, hero, offer cards, rate tiles, interior layouts, built so the marketing team could reprogram them with new promotions instead of commissioning a new page every time.
Templates that lead with the rate or the promotion, not the org chart, with search best practices built in by the team from the start rather than bolted on after launch.
A co-brand lockup, a naming-rights announcement, a dedicated partnership hub on the site, and sweepstakes campaigns that ran across web, social, and print. The brand had to work at rate-tile scale and stadium scale in the same season.
A credit union has to be trusted with your money on a Tuesday and hold the field on Sunday.
The site carries a full product line, rates that move with the market, and the biggest brand moment in the institution's history. The test was whether all of it could sit on one homepage without reading as two different companies.
The redesigned site opens with the rate that matters right now, then hands members a row of offer cards and a set of rate tiles before it asks them to read a paragraph. Underneath is a template system the marketing team can reprogram: swap the hero, change the promotion, run a season. The Commanders partnership lives right on the homepage, so the biggest thing the brand is doing is never more than a scroll away.
The redesigned homepage, top to the Commanders band. Offer-led hero, product cards, rate tiles, and the partnership all in one scroll. Scroll within the frame to see the full page.
Naming rights are a brand test more than a media buy. Northwest Federal's name went on the building, so the brand had to be ready to stand next to the Commanders without shrinking or shouting. That meant a co-brand system that could sit on a stadium wall, a homepage, a poster, and a social ad, and read as the same brand every time.
The co-brand lockup. Northwest Federal's mark and the Commanders' W, weighted so neither one wins, with the official-partner line locked underneath.
The naming-rights reveal. The moment the field became Northwest Stadium, announced in the team's own language.
The dedicated partnership hub. A branded landing page that turns the sponsorship into something members can act on: an account offer, a video, a fan gallery, and the member perks the partnership unlocks. Scroll within the frame to see the full page.
Ride the Rails to Rivalry. A sweepstakes built around the Commanders and Giants rivalry, tickets, a train up to New York, a hotel, run across social and large-format print off the same system.
Deliverable tracks carried under one brand system.
A rebuilt website first, then a stadium partnership that had to look native to two organizations at once.
The website rebuild set the system. The Washington Commanders partnership then had to extend it into stadium signage, print, and campaigns without either brand losing itself.
The interesting part of this account was the range a single brand had to cover. The same visual system had to make a certificate rate feel worth acting on and stand up on the side of an NFL stadium, and it had to do both in the same season without feeling like two different companies.
The website is what makes that survivable. A credit union runs promotions constantly, and if every one of them needs a designer and a developer, the calendar wins and the brand slips. Building the site as a system the marketing team could run, rather than a set of pages they had to request, is the quiet thing I'd point to first. The Commanders work is the part people notice. The template kit underneath it is the part that let the team keep up.
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