• Brand strategy
• Brand name
• Visual identity system
• Voice
• Copywriting
• Messaging
• Brand launch kit
• Information architecture
• Website design
Loretta Lassman,
Director, CplusC
We worked with elite architectural firm and regenerative design leader CplusC to create a new brand identity and website (coming soon).
Architecture and design are crowded fields with many small businesses vying for market share. CplusC is a quality firm of both architects and builders who take clients from concept to finished home. Unlike most firms, who specialise in architectural design but do not build, CplusC offers an end-to-end service – its architects and master builders collaborate to construct beautifully detailed and personalised homes that lead the market for their boundary-pushing sustainability and craft. The company is also B Corp certified, making it one of Australia’s most ethical architecture firms.
We felt CplusC’s brand needed to tune into the intensely human experience of making a home – and not get lost in archiporn, theory or showcasing awards like some competitor brands. Differentiating the firm would be key.
CplusC asked us to look at their brand name as part of brand development. Coined at the company’s founding, it’s a long-standing name that’s a little mystifying for customers. We considered making it ‘mean something’ e.g. ‘from concept to construction’. We discarded our ideas because they were not customer-led. Retrofitting the name felt too mechanical. We wanted the brand to feel alive, true to customers’ experience of working with a B Corp certified firm that actively looks for ways to add value, not just to customer projects but, more broadly, taking responsibility for the world around us.
So we decided to view the name as an icon – the two Cs feel like two pillars framing an idea – plus – rather than letters that must carry meaning. We wanted to create a brand that’s all about the plus – the many, many things that differentiate the CplusC customer experience.
To validate what that ‘plus’ is, we developed high-level customer profiles and customer ‘care-abouts’ based on insights supplied by our client. We used these to distill the proposition brand keys and the tagline ‘for life’.
We also created a seven-point differentiation statement to explain how CplusC’s process differs from that of competitors and how this enables them to produce more satisfying results that are built to last. We used this messaging to write a new company profile that updates market positioning online and in company collateral, such as competitive pitches and proposals.
The brand messaging was also instrumental in highlighting how we needed to restructure the company’s website, revising the page structure and web copy to draw out the company’s differentiation rather than design successes alone.
To create the visual identity, we took our cues from the surfaces and materials that CplusC uses to create its unique homes. Using different combinations of letterforms and colours we created a more dynamic graphic system for CplusC. This enabled a bespoke look and feel for each new client project, in keeping with the highly personalised workstyle and results that are the hallmark of the firm.
You can see how the visual identity works on the branded items shown here – everything from proposal templates and company notepads to social media, plus distinctive gifts, like keyrings and thank you cards.
Inspired by the firm’s rough sketches for new projects, we developed a unique textured cubic letterform for the brandmark. The result is a flexible set of brandmarks that can respond to any environment, from large-scale vertical wall signage to little details like the website favicons and social media icons.
Inspired by the big idea ‘for life’, the colour palette features an array of harmonious tints and shades. Selected to evoke the feeling of home, they’re natural, warm, calming and inviting.
The plus symbol is used as a motif on stationery and to reinforce the message of the tagline – this is a company that value adds at every stage of your experience. They simply give you more.
CplusC exists for people, not buildings. As an ethical firm, the focus is delivering for clients and the community, including the CplusC team. The photography style reflects this by making people the focus and showing moments of real life happening in finished homes. In-progress images and videos evoke the unique experience of creating a home from the ground up – all the blood, sweat and tears and the incredible highs of seeing a home take shape, while foregrounding the skills of the master builders who bring the design vision to life onsite.
We also advised on the brand voice and how it works on branded collateral, the website and social media.
We proposed a new website (coming soon) architecture and developed an intelligent taxonomy for news articles so that they automatically populate the right pages on the site, minimising work for the site owners and keeping the site fresh and dynamic. Based on the visual identity, brand messaging and brand voice already developed, we created a fresh look-and-feel and copywriting to revitalise the website. The website will go live when the firm moves into its new Surry Hills, Sydney studio.
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