Nexa Tax - Building a Startup's Brand
Creative Strategy, Identity, Marketing Campaigns
Role: Head of Marketing, Lead Designer
'24 - '25
Project Overview
Nexa Tax is a fintech startup helping college athletes navigate taxes under new NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) rules. I joined early before launch, and was tasked with building the brand so it would resonate with athletes while establishing credibility with parents, coaches, and investors.
I was responsible for leading the brand's visual identity and marketing voice. This included developing the design system, shaping messaging, and producing various 2D and motion assets used across social, product, and investor materials.
The Challenge
College athletes were earning money for the first time under NIL, but the idea of filing and tracking taxes felt intimidating and unapproachable. The problem wasn't just filing taxes - it was the perception of taxes. Competing tools looked corporate and overly complicated. Built for accountants, not college athletes juggling practice and classes.
My job was to flip that script and do the impossible: break through that wall of intimidation and create a tax brand that spoke their language, carried the energy of sports culture, and turn something dreaded into something they'd understand and engage with.
The Approach
In order to resonate with athletes, I first had to really get into the mind of a college athlete. Being a recent graduate myself I was already halfway there. Doing deep research, we created a college athlete psychographic profile that spanned from basic interests to social accounts they followed to music they listened to. For the branding to appeal to the audience, we had to understand the tone, visual style, and language they all connected with.
After we got our ideal customer, we needed to position ourselves as relatable - not corporate. There was a fine line between these two as we still needed to build credibility as a safe and trusted financial app. The solution to this was to curate our presence closer to sports culture than finance. We wanted to be a major player within the culture first, providing visuals and designs that enhanced the community we were entering rather than spamming "download our app".
To build this credibility and trust, both with the athletes and investors, we chose to cater our content with a social-first approach. We had to meet the athletes where they are - whether it be on Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn. We're not a suit speaking down to an athlete, we are a teammate on their roster.
The Solution
Nexa's identity was stripped of corporate polish and instead drew cues from sports culture - fortified typography, energetic layouts, and color decisions closer to NFL team branding than finance software. The messaging avoided financial jargon and leaned on the direct, no-BS talk athletes already used in their own spaces. On social we wanted to educate, so we broke down tax topics into quick, digestible formats. Graphics, reels, animations. The content had to feel less like homework and more like scrolling on their feed.
Visual Identity System
Social Content & Campaigns
The real perception shift happened through content. We built three core pillars that gave us both structure and variety:
Educational: Bite-sized graphics and reels breaking down tax concepts in plain language. Instead of walls of text we used engaging visuals and quick swipes that showed athletes exactly how to track deductions, write off expenses, or prep for filing.
Memes: Sports and culture-driven posts that took something athletes already engaged with and tied it back to taxes. This lowered the barrier, taxes weren't coming from a suit, they were should up in the same feed as highlights and locker-room humor.