You probably never thought a financial company would create a website that is entertaining, engaging and informative. Well think again as Quicken Loans has partnered with ePrize and taken a step forward with the launch of a virtual world Qtopia!

Qtopia is an animated, second life-style type site combining financial planning tools, information resources and community features  and is exclusive to Quicken’s 300,000 customers.

With the Marketing Team at Quicken Loans the Creative Team at ePrize developed the idea.   The first concept was much simpler, with a very small town and only a few buildings.

As the project started to develop, several different concepts were explored. At first, there was a very “cartoony” approach, but it was determined that style didn’t fit the Quicken Loans brand  appropriately. The team went back to the drawing board.

Designers took their cameras to places like downtown Northville and Plymouth, Michigan to capture their inspiration. They took pictures of places like the corner store, the local ice cream shop, and a unique historic home with a big front porch.  A big part of the project was the ability to use references from childhood memories to inspire the new and final look of Qtopia.

To explore Qtopia and for more information about Quicken Loans, please visit www.quickenloans.com

www.whatsthediff.com (Quicken Loans Blog)

http://blog.quizzle.com/ (Quizzle Blog) http://www.quickenloans-difference.com/ (Quicken Loans Difference Blog)

Filed under: Latest Postings on April 1st, 2008