Tone of voice – Nick Carson

Dejumbling insurance with mischievous wordplay

October 24, 2025November 13, 2025Nick Carson

I collaborated with Taxi Studio to develop the brand voice for fintech challenger Yoloh.

Most insurance brands trade on fear and confusion. Yoloh set out to flip that script – helping people spend more time living, not form-filling.

Working closely with Taxi’s brand and strategy teams, I helped develop ‘Insurance dejumbled’ – a powerful brand platform that untangles complexity at every touchpoint.

Video credit: Taxi Studio

At the heart of the brand expression is four-fingered digital assistant ‘Andi’. When you first fire up the app, the phrase ‘Andi censured jumble’ is nimbly rearranged into the tagline ‘Insurance dejumbled’ – demonstrating the brand’s unique offer in a playful, memorable way.

Read more about the Yoloh strategy in Taxi’s case study.

Yoloh’s ambigram brand mark is identical when flipped upside down, inspiring the supporting line: “Making life easier, whichever way you look at it.”

Video credit: Taxi Studio

We then took the creative concept of ‘dejumbling’ to the next level, transforming the many different varieties of insurance into memorable, contextually relevant anagrams.

“Any incidents ruin me” became “indemnity insurance”
“Canal in dentures” became “dental insurance”
“Mourns a Citroën” became “motor insurance”

These weren’t just wordplay – they symbolised how even the most tangled concepts could be unscrambled into something human and approachable.

I developed Yoloh’s brand voice, starting with a top-level brand personality: ‘Attentive Guide’. Built around three core principles – Accessible, Attentive and Proactive – the voice turns tedious policy wording into friendly, human conversations, with a touch of warmth and wit.

“The breadth and depth of Nick’s knowledge is such a rich foundation for his copywriting. He gets under a new brand’s skin quickly and with all the smarts in all the right places. He provides so much more to creative outcomes than words.”
Emma Hopton – creative strategist, Taxi Studio

Press coverage

Taxi Studio balances trust and play in Yoloh rebrand
Design Week

Taxi reveals new brand for insurtech platform Yoloh
Creative Boom

How a fun rebrand and a new mascot boosted this brand’s reputation tenfold
Creative Bloq

Overplaying their hand
Brand New (subscription needed)

Awards for Yoloh
Bronze Award – Brand Impact Awards 2025

Celebrating 50 years of the Virgin brand

March 25, 2020October 24, 2025Nick Carson

I am the author of Virgin By Design, a premium ‘coffee-table’ book celebrating 50 years of the Virgin brand.

Collaborating closely with the Virgin Group brand team and the book’s publisher Thames & Hudson, I helped develop a content strategy to appeal to brand designers, creative marketeers and ambitious entrepreneurs.

Cover and selected spreads. Image credit: Virgin

Rather than a chronological retrospective, we agreed it would be more compelling to tell the story thematically, exploring the unique characteristics that make the Virgin brand special.

Buy a copy of Virgin By Design on Amazon

The process involved over 120 interviews with CEOs, CMOs and other influential individuals responsible for shaping the past, present and future of the Virgin brand – from the early days of Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic in the ’70s and ’80s, through to present-day innovations from the likes of Virgin Galactic and Virgin Voyages.

Drawing on hundreds of thousands of words of transcript, I crafted the many diverse stories into 10 distinct chapters. These explored areas such as Virgin’s ‘cheeky start-up’ mentality, the importance of taking risks and innovating, the ‘feel-good experiences’ and ‘magic moments’ at the heart of the brand, and how Virgin can stay relevant for the next 50 years.

With multiple senior stakeholders involved – including Virgin Group’s chief brand officer and global CEO, as well as Richard Branson himself – my copywriting brief was to capture Virgin’s brand values, while remaining engaging and entertaining for an external audience.

Nick helped us shape a cohesive narrative from multiple voices. He was quick to understand Virgin’s brand principles and history, and convey it seamlessly throughout the book. Nick’s skill in finding compelling stories translates to a joyful yet comprehensive read. He was a joy to work with.
Charlotte Bufton – brand manager and project lead, Virgin

Virgin By Design’s 10 thematic chapters. Image credit: Virgin

Fascinating archive photography, striking campaign visuals and playful commissioned illustration bring the featured stories to life.

The design, by Pete Rossi at RM&CO, encourages different levels of engagement. Readers can flick through for visual inspiration, or deep-dive into each chapter’s theme.

Content formats vary from bite-size captions to long thematic reads, bound-in as inserts amongst full-bleed images to maximise visual impact. Gatefolds expand the canvas at key points to do milestone campaigns justice.

“Nick’s deep understanding of how branding and design work within a business, and his industry knowledge and contacts, make him an invaluable member of a creative team.”
Andrew Sanigar – commissioning editor, Thames & Hudson

Virgin By Design was published by Thames & Hudson in March 2020.

Awards for Virgin By Design
Silver Award – Graphis Design Annual 2021
Highly Commended – Drum Design Awards 2020
People’s Choice – Creativepool Annual 2020

Rolling out tone of voice for a European bank

March 14, 2019January 28, 2020Nick CarsonLeave a Comment

HROD logo showing four quadrants. Image credit: 31% Wool

Client: 31% Wool / EBRD
Disciplines: Copywriting, tone of voice
Duration: 9 days

I helped 31% Wool make EBRD’s HR department more engaging and approachable.

31% Wool’s verbal narrative for the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development’s newly formed ‘HR and Organisational Department’ (HROD) is based on four ‘quadrants’ that play on banking terminology.

All communications are framed in terms of assets, liabilities, risks and returns. HROD might describe people as its “greatest asset”, for instance, or discuss “unlocking returns” for its staff.

My brief was to translate this conceptual approach across a range of materials – from landing pages to onboarding packs – while balancing the need to be punchy and direct, but also warm and welcoming.

Read more on 31% Wool’s website…

Landing pages from HROD website. Image credit: 31% Wool

I also wrote guidelines to help HROD staff maintain this tone of voice across other day-to-day applications.

Tone of voice booklet for HROD. Image credit: 31% Wool

“Nick quickly grasped the intricacies and breadth of the client’s verbal comms, and brought to life some previously quite generic pieces with our new verbal language and a consistent tone of voice. He was happy to turn around some tight client deadlines, and I hope we’ll be working on more projects together in the future.”
Julia Woollams, creative director, 31% Wool