Branding a Start-Up

In 2016, I began working with my former boss from Schoos Design to create a new company called Relocity. In addition to brainstorming the business plan and strategy, I was responsible for the branding, including designing the logo, website, marketing materials and other collateral.

The idea of the business was to provide a new kind of relocation service, one that provides concierge-level services to all customers, not just top-level executives, so that clients are well adjusted and acclimated to their new home. The intent was to disrupt the relocation business, which has not evolved much in decades, much the way car services like Uber and Lyft disrupted a complacent taxi industry. The initial focus would be entirely on people relocating to L.A.

Corporate Image

The new company operates mostly on the Internet so that it will appeal to the millennial generation and "digital natives". Because of the target audience, the image needed to be fresh, modern and a bit edgy. We began by hiring a filmmaker to shoot a series of evocative vignettes of life in L.A., designed to evoke the "vibe" of Relocity (and giving us an image gallery for use on the website and in other collateral). The video now is the focus of the home page of the website. See more about the website here.

Creating this video was a seminal part of our brand development process and it influenced many other elements, such as our corporate color scheme and visual style.

The Logo

Because of the contemporary digital nature of the corporate identity, the logo needed to be simple and modern, but with a professional balance and just a hint of artistic style.

Because we wanted customers to pronounce the name so that it rhymes with "velocity", we realized that it would not be wise to divide the word in any way that suggested the pronunciation "Reelo-City". It did seem useful, however, to make use of the circular shapes of the "O" and the "C" to bring balance and unity. The final logo (top of page) combines a variety of typefaces to create a simple but balanced form that suggests style and modernism. By contrast, the tagline appears to be handwritten (though neatly), expressing the important personal nature of the company's services.

The Color Palette

Based on the golden hues captured in our "vibe" video, it seemed only natural for gold to be a central element in the corporate identity. Besides gold, we went with a black-and-white color scheme to capture the modern, digital nature of the brand. Our business cards (above) are therefore black on white on one side, and white on black on the other. A nice detail is that the edges of the extra-thick cards are reflective gold. The black, white and gold color palette is continued on the website and printed collateral, using gold headings and accents.

The Visual Style

On the website and in other materials, the Relocity style is captured by alternating evocative photography with refined graphic images. Since the business concept is new to the public and requires some explanation, a fair amount of text is needed in the website. To simplify and clarify the text, icons and infographics are used frequently. These graphic elements also help support the modern, classic style of the brand.

Collateral

Below are some examples of marketing materials created for Relocity.

Advertising

Below is a selection of display ads that were used in Google AdWords, online ads and social media. The ads were designed to capture specific sectors of the relocation market with provocative questions about their core values and needs. The imagery evokes aspirations of an ideal California lifestyle. In some cases, primary colors like red replaced the brand palette colors in order to draw the eye when placed next to competing messages.