![]() Launched around a decade later as part of Smart’s internal tech startup accelerator Voyager Innovations, MePay was built in 2014 as a way to build on the success of Smart Money and Smart Padala, further solve the problem of unbanked Filipinos, and introduce fintech into smartphones. Image from “History of PayMaya with Raymund Villanueva” at UX&Chill 2020īut to get to the modern incarnation of Smart’s voyage into fintech and Maya, we have to talk about MePay. From there, Smart’s fintech journey evolved into Smart Padala in 2004, an international and domestic cash remittance service that heavily relied upon mobile phones for transactions. launched Smart Money in 2000 as a cooperation with First e-Bank (before it became acquired by BDO Unibank) to launch a card that was linked to a Smart mobile phone. Like its rival, Maya started its fintech career through a telco when Smart Communications, Inc. as a secondary, which is used in any areas that need more text and where Tuka wouldn’t be appropriate to use given its importance as a logo font Tuka is mainly and intentionally used in headlines, sub-headlines, and short text.įrom left to right: PayMaya’s old app UI, Maya’s new app UI This isn’t the first time Maya changed its name.Ĭontrary to Maya’s main rival GCash where its name has remained mainly the same since 2004, Maya has had a long history and evolution from what it used to be. To supplement Tuka, the new branding also uses the typeface Cerebri Sans Pro from type foundry Hanken Design Co. Tuka’s “m” modeled after a monoline bird drawing Tuka, Maya’s typeface created by Jo Malinis Images from “Discovering the Character of the Philippine Type”, a talk by Jo Malinis at CREATEPhilippines Creative Futures 2022 The main “m” in Maya is also modeled after a monoline rendition of a maya bird. One of the references being the typeface’s main feature, the notches or “ink traps in the shape of a bird’s beak” which gives Tuka its identity and uniqueness against other similar typefaces. The new typeface aims to be sleek but cheerful and includes certain references to Maya’s previous identity PayMaya, where the logo with the maya bird’s wings and its cartoon bird mascot were mainstays in its former identity. The main custom typography for the Maya rebrand is the Tuka typeface, created by type designer Jo Malinis as her last project under Plus63 Design Co., in collaboration with Apol Sta. Quoted from “Discovering the Character of the Philippine Type”, a talk by Jo Malinis at CREATEPhilippines Creative Futures 2022 Because of these unique and easily recognizable features, Tuka can represent Maya’s brand identity even in the absence of the brand’s logo. Such was the case for Tuka, a custom typeface I developed for the rebrand of digital banking app PayMaya, together with design studio Plus63. They help brands express more of their personalities, set a mood and control their narratives. handles the general brand identity and typography while The Acid House focuses on 3D illustration, motion graphics, CG animation, and VFX.Īccording to a post from The Acid House, the rebrand had already been a work-in-progress since the start of 2022.įrom left to right: PayMaya QR code template with the bird, PayMaya QR code template but dark mode, Maya’s new QR code template Type is important for a lot of businesses too. To split the rebrand’s tasks, Plus63 Design Co. ![]() and The Acid House, both heads of the renowned local creative supergroup Hydra Design Group are the ones handling Maya’s new brand identity and promotional material. To handle this gargantuan task, you may need to call up something that can handle “gargantuan”. ![]() ![]() It’s certainly a far cry from their original failed branding before PayMaya, “MePay”, but we’ll talk about that later. We already knew that the separate word “Maya” could be used as the general rebrand for PayMaya a while back when we first heard the news about Maya Bank, Maya’s BSP-authorized digital bank that would eventually become part of Maya’s shift to offering more services. But dropping the very word “Pay” shows that the company and the brand want to truly push it beyond payment and into more ways of interacting with money. In the very battle of day-to-day pronunciation, the name switch puts them at par with other two-syllable names like “GCash”, “GrabPay”, “Venmo”, “Cash App”, and “PayPal”, among others. ![]() This change alone should be an improvement toward brand recognizability. In a move that took years before someone had to approach them with this good idea, PayMaya’s name has been changed to “Maya”. ![]()
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