Solna

Future Earnings Marketplace for Creators

positioning

problem statement

market research

user research

brand design

next steps

Purpose

Website Development Markers

Design Prompt

Creators

Investors

Feature Differenciators

Core Motivations

Core Motivations

The Monetisation Gap

Direct Competitor Analysis

Designing Trust for the Future of Creator Capital

Solna is a future-earnings marketplace where creators raise capital by offering royalties from future income.


It was building a new category: future revenue investing for creators. But innovative ideas only work when people believe in them. Solna became the bridge between bold vision and user trust — a brand system, visual language, and product identity designed to make it feel powerful, credible, and creator-centric from the first click.

These models monetize content. Solna monetizes potential.

Creators raise capital by offering a share of future earnings, like micro-IPOs — aligning with how startups raise, not influencers.

Sample Creator Profiles

Visual Language

Motion Is Never Distracting — Only Directional

Tone: Calm Clarity

Animations and transitions are used only when they help the user understand the flow or gain context. Not decorative, not gimmicky — always useful.


  • Anchors attention: Subtle transitions help guide the user’s eye

  • Improves comprehension: Movement can show hierarchy, progression, or change states

  • Builds a system feel: Good motion builds familiarity and reduces anxiety

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The brand doesn’t scream. It speaks clearly, calmly, and with purpose. Every visual decision signals "we know what we're doing — and so do you."


  • Creates psychological safety: People are more likely to trust and invest in what feels grounded

  • Disrupts the norm: So many platforms chase hype. Solna does the opposite — it’s focused, intentional, timeless

  • Supports creators’ own brands: A calm tone lets them shine — you’re the infrastructure, not the spotlight

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Pilot Rollout with 10–15 Creators


  • Use cases spanning categories (music, education, product design, lifestyle)

  • Set up live royalty contracts

  • Begin controlled backer onboarding

  • Track retention, ROI expectations, and dashboard usability

1

Launch First Investment Pool


  • Pooled funding model to let new backers diversify across creators

  • Yield dashboard with projected + realized payouts

  • Web2 onboarding with optional Web3 tokenization layer (future-ready infra)

2

Brand-Led Go-to-Market Launch

Long-term vision


  • Positioning around “The Infrastructure Layer for the Creator Economy”

  • Brand film teaser (60s), founder video, product walkthroughs


Redefine how capital flows into the creative economy — with creators at the center, anmd become the default infrastructure for backable digital talent.

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Role

Industry

Brand Identity

Creator fintech

Style

Keywords

Minimal, bold

Trust, Future, Ownership

Project Scope

Mission Statement

  • Identity system

  • Website design

  • UI/UX flows

  • Visual language

  • Product storytelling


  • Bridge the gap between fintech credibility and creator-centric warmth


    Solna deals in serious money — but it’s also built for creators, artists, and storytellers. The website had to feel as trustworthy as a bank and as fluid as a portfolio website. No cold dashboards. No boring interfaces. Just design that breathes.


  • Turn a complex financial concept into a clear, intuitive experience

    Future earnings, royalty flows, creator revenue projections — these aren't everyday ideas. Solna’s challenge was to translate dense financial logic into swipeable, digestible, feelable design.

  • Help Royaltree feel “premium, personal, and powerful” from first scroll

    First impressions matter — especially when trust and money are involved. Every scroll, hover, and interaction needed to reflect a premium brand that respects the user’s time, intelligence, and ambition.

To build a digital identity for Solna that feels as visionary as its model — earning user trust through clarity and strategic design.

Primary Problem:

Building trust in an idea the world hadn’t seen before.

Solna wasn’t trying to optimize an existing model — it was introducing a new one. A future-earnings marketplace for creators meant asking people to back a promise. The user journey had to overcome one core truth:
People don’t trust what they don’t understand.


  1. Creators Are Brand-Conscious

Creators want platforms that reflect their brand. If Royaltree felt stiff, scammy, or low-effort, high-potential creators would walk away.

  1. Two Audiences, Two Needs

Creators wanted flexibility and low-friction onboarding. Backers wanted data transparency and ROI logic. Most design systems serve one, not both.

  1. Future Revenue Is Intangible

The core product — backing creators for a share in future income — is abstract. Users needed visual clarity and simplified financial storytelling.


  1. Finance Feels Intimidating

Most platforms in this space lean into legacy dashboards and dense interfaces. That creates distance — not trust.

Translate abstract financial mechanics — like projected revenue shares and royalty contracts — into tangible, visual UI metaphors

Establish instant credibility through visual consistency and microinteraction feedback

Minimize cognitive load at first interaction. Use spatial hierarchy, whitespace, and motion to guide both creators and investors through asymmetric information

Develop a modular identity system

Scale across marketing, onboarding, and investor dashboards while maintaining coherence and emotional tone

The Macro Landscape

The Creator Economy Boom:
The creator economy has crossed $250B globally, with over 300 million people identifying as “creators.” But monetization tools have remained linear: brand deals, subscriptions, merch, and fan-funded platforms dominate — offering little scalability or long-term upside.

Creators want:

  • Ownership of their revenue streams

  • Tools that mirror their ambition

  • Financial systems that don’t look like banks

Model

Type

Challenge

Brand Deals

One-time transaction

Platform-dependent, not scalable

Subscriptions

Recurring revenue

Requires constant engagement

Merch

Tangible fulfillment

Logistical overhead, niche appeal

Crowdfunding

Project-based

No long-term investor relationship

Platform

Positioning

Limitation

Patreon

Recurring donations

Fan-powered, not investor-powered

Stir

Revenue splits & payouts

No future-facing model

Gumroad

Sell digital products

Transactional, not equity-based

Pico

Monetization infrastructure

Publisher-focused, not creator-centric

Roll

Social tokens for creators

Crypto-based, lacks UX clarity/trust

The White Space

The future earnings model needs:


  • Instant believability (complex → simple)

  • Emotional premium (serious, but not sterile)

  • Dual-audience UX (creators + backers)

  • Category-defining language + identity

Retain Autonomy

Creators are willing to explore new monetization paths, but not at the cost of losing control over their content or audience.

Anti-Institutional Tools

Anything that feels like “corporate finance” — heavy dashboards, complicated contract flows, or stiff terminology — is an immediate turnoff.

Brand-Consistent Tools

They judge tools like they judge fonts. If the product’s aesthetic feels outdated or clunky, they worry it will reflect on them.

Pain Points:

  • Traditional tools feel made for VCs, not creators

  • Funding options feel “one-size-fits-all”

  • Lack of flexible, easy-to-understand terms

Simplicity, With Clarity

They want clean, minimal experiences that don’t overwhelm, but still give the right level of insight (performance, historical data, projected earnings)

Trust Signals

Without them, they hesitate. These include platform transparency, visibility into creator performance, and strong UX/UI.

Functional Interfaces

Legacy financial tools (think dashboards from 2010) feel too enterprise; they want an experience

Pain Points:

  • Jargon-heavy interfaces

  • Overwhelming Excel-style dashboards

  • Not enough contextual information to assess ROI

For Creators:

Smart Term Builder

For Investors:

Earnings Tracker

Diversification Panel

Anika Kapoor

Indie Beauty Influencer, 22, Jaipur → Mumbai

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  • Followers: 148K on Instagram, 18K YouTube subs

  • Funding Goal: ₹6L to launch a cruelty-free lip tint line

  • Frustration: Brands want exclusivity; bank loans are confusing




Leon West

Full-Time Musician & Touring Drummer, 29, Berlin

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  • Followers: 20K Spotify monthlies, 9K Insta

  • Funding Goal: €12K to self-release an album & merch drop

  • Frustration: Spotify pays late, Patreon isn’t scalable



Nila Huang

Educational YouTuber, 34, Bay Area

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  • Subscribers: 96K on YouTube

  • Funding Goal: $25K to hire a motion designer

  • Frustration: She doesn’t want ad sponsorship cluttering her videos




Marissa Keyes

Brand Strategist, 41, NYC

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  • Avg Ticket Size: $500–$1,000

  • Goal: Fund early creative entrepreneurs she aligns with

  • Frustration: No way to do this without it feeling like a donation




Omar Said

Crypto-native creator advocate, 27 Dubai

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  • Avg Ticket Size: Flexible

  • Goal: Explore alt-asset creator exposure

  • Frustration: Creator platforms are too “Web2” in UX




Dev Mehta

Ex-Fintech Angel Investor, 38 Bangalore

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  • Avg Ticket Size: $5K–$20K

  • Goal: Passive creator exposure, alternative to startup equity

  • Frustration: Current platforms = low data, high noise




Intentional Negative Space

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Solna avoids cluttered interfaces. Instead of cramming functionality into every pixel, it uses space strategically — so each interaction, each metric, and each call-to-action feels clear, important, and human.


  • Cognitive clarity: Less mental load = faster, more confident decisions

  • Premium signal: Negative space is a hallmark of luxury design (think Apple, Notion)

  • Creator respect: You’re not shouting at users — you’re inviting them

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Color Palette

Typography scale

I used neutrals with depth, anchored in cool greys, ivory, desaturated navy, matte black