Uncommon and Communion Throw Up a Two-Fingered Salute in New Effing Ad

Today sees the launch of Communion, a new app created to arm the nation with a financial buffer against the world and fix its broken relationship with money. Founded with the belief that ‘Saving is Freedom’, Communion is the first app of its kind to provide the right conditions for building wealth including habit formation and behaviour change training as well as the tools to save and grow earnings.

The launch comes at a time of great financial uncertainty, fuelled by rising interest rates, cost of living hikes and pay freezes. Communion’s own research has found that 94% of 18–40 year olds have suffered from money anxiety and, for one in four of them, not a day goes by without worrying about money. Half of those surveyed believe they will never have enough money.

Meanwhile, companies have made it easier than ever for people to impulse spend, and harder to keep hold of the money they earn. The abundance of finance apps, tools and services has led to more, not less, confusion: Communion’s data shows that the UK feels trapped by money, and that too many people’s finances are out of control. Communion is on a mission to break this cycle and make saving feel as powerful and effortless as spending.

LAUNCHING WITH THE F.U.nd

Savings give you the chance to wave goodbye to the things that are holding you back — from your boring day job, to your sadist boss, to your lousy boyfriend. Communion exists to give everyone the chance to have financial freedom.

So, to launch the app in the world, Communion and Uncommon have created the ‘F.U.nd’ — which stands for ‘fuck you fund’. The fund celebrates the cathartic joy of being able, finally, to tell that person — or thing — where to go. The F.U.nd was inspired by the term ‘fuck off fund’ popularised by writer Paulette Perhach.

Uncommon brings Communion’s F.U.nd to life through a rebellious launch film — using the icon of a hand giving two fingers and repeatedly flipping off everyday restraints that can hold us back.

In the film, we see our hero say “eff you” to the likes of a boss, a landlord and even British television personality and entrepreneur Spencer Matthews, who stars in a cameo role.

Lucy Jameson, co-founder at Uncommon said, “We set-up Uncommon to build brands people wish existed. But if we came across an idea we believed in — we’d go one step further — and back it ourselves. Communion is just that — a new investment community and app designed to give everyone the power to build a financial buffer against the world and say “eff you” to the things that hold them back. Data shows that very few people in the UK are saving enough for their future. Communion is on a mission to break this cycle and make investing feel as democratic, empowering and effortless as spending.”

Nils Leonard, co-founder at Uncommon added, “We’re so proud to have built Communion with Dan and his excellent team from the ground-up. Humans let money stop us living. It’s what really holds us back from doing the things we want — whether that’s making an idea a reality, quitting a job you hate or leaving a terrible lover. Removing dependency is a beautiful human state and saving is a big part of that. Whether it’s the logo with its broken chain, the language or the principles behind the design of the launch savings product — The FUnd, the concept of freedom lives through the entire brand. This is the type of work Uncommon thrives on, finding fame and audiences in every detail of a brands experience.”

Alongside the film, the F.U.nd launches with a limited run of explicit, two-fingered chrome money banks, a physical, symbolic reminder that savings give us the power to say “no” to the things that don’t serve us best.

MORE ABOUT THE LOGO & BRAND WORLD

The app icon uses the unique and ownable combination of the brand’s clouded sky and chrome chained ‘C’ — helping the app standout on busy phone screens.

Communion’s brand — designed by Uncommon — launches with an iconic logo of a broken chain. Representing the idea of breaking free from financial constraints, the letter ‘C’ is formed using the links. The perfect icon for the brand’s ethos of ‘Saving is Freedom’. The logo and wordmark are integrated — establishing the broken chain as the symbol for money independence.

The brand world is all based in materials, using things that we’re familiar with, from the chrome metals of the icons inspired by chains, to the cloud and blue sky world and nature based colours — this gives the brand a sense of physicality and uses visual references that are related to freedom.

The colours follow this notion of physicality using a yellow ‘sun’, blue ‘sky’, green ‘lawn’ and pink ‘rose’ in the brand’s palette. These colours will adopt gradients throughout the brand world — sometimes mixing together — the direction of the gradient always takes inspiration from the colour’s origin. For example, Sky and Sun are top gradients and Lawn and Rose bottom.

The brand’s iconography will also live in the material world of the chain — with a soft chrome look, reflecting the world around us as well as acting as the buffer against it. Each icon has a meaningful relationship to the app’s twelve founding principles.

Taking inspiration from the world of finance — the brand uses an abstracted version of a graph paper nodding to the traditions of financial planning — reflecting this in a fresh new feel through the lens of Communion. As well as the use of candid, honest and in the moment photography style to express the feeling of breaking free.

The big and bold approach to the Communion brand sets it apart in the world of finance, it’s not about safety and small type, it’s about being expressive and celebrating what freedom feels like.

MORE ABOUT COMMUNION

Unlike any other money app, Communion provides the right conditions for building wealth including habit formation and behaviour change training as well as the tools to save and grow earnings.

With Communion, you get:

• Mindset, skills, knowledge: unlike any other finance platform, Communion uses psychology and behavioural science to tackle underlying and pervasive money anxiety. Members are coached through a personalised 12-step wealth-building plan and explore their own unique relationship with money with the help of Communion’s community and unlimited access to its team of Money Guides.
• Up to 5.66% on savings: members earn 3.66% AER in an FSCS-protected easy-access savings account from day one. Unlike any other savings account, Communion has integrated a unique top-up bonus feature which allows each member to earn up to an additional 2% on their standard rate of 3.66% AER by inviting friends to join them in the app. Friends who sign-up and remain members of Communion also benefit from a 0.2% bonus and can, in turn, boost their standard rate by inviting their friends, and so on. Returns of up to 5.66% make Communion’s savings account one of the most competitive on the market today.
• Financial autonomy: members build an ‘F.U.nd’, giving them ultimate control and confidence to say “eff you” to anyone or anything that’s holding them back. Communion’s unique autosave technology allows savers to incrementally reach their personalised saving target over time.

Founder and CEO of Communion, Daniel Hegarty, said, “We believe everyone has the ability to take control of their money and build a buffer against the world, so long as they’re given the right conditions, tools and support to do so. We created Communion for people who want to live life with more autonomy and less fear.

You want to go on holiday. You want to move to a nicer area. You want to quit your day job. You just want to feel less anxious about money. The difference between doing the thing you’ve always wanted to do, and never having the chance isn’t hustling, get-rich-quick-schemes or meme stocks — it’s saving. But as simple as that sounds, saving is a really hard thing to do. Pretty much everything around us prevents us from being able to hold on to what we earn and no one is currently tackling the underlying pressures and biases that are at play when it comes to money.”

iPhone users can download the Communion app now from the App Store. Android users can join the waitlist for the Android app here.