Home&
Home& is a collaborative team of experienced construction experts, architects and designers, project managers, and skilled tradespeople that has built more than 300 homes in the Chicago area over the past 25 years. The scope of work for this brand development project included market research, company naming, identity design, and website.
Formerly known as Smart Tech Homes, Home& is a collaborative team of experienced construction experts, architects and designers, project managers, skilled tradespeople—and you. Pioneers of the bungalows of the 21st century, the company has built more than 300 high-style, high-value homes in the Chicago area over the past 25 years.
Unlike the majority of home-building companies—which use either the founder’s name or a combination of generic words that lack distinction, or both—I sought to turn the focus back on the buyer when renaming this established Chicago homebuilder. The subject of home is personal and often emotionally charged, and the open-endedness of the name allows each person to add to it the things that are most meaningful to them. The name also serves as a metaphor for the uncommonly high level of customization the builder affords.
The positioning for Home& is a bold declaration of the homebuyer’s central role in everything the builder does:
Home&, formerly known as Smart Tech Homes, is a collaborative team of experienced construction experts, architects and designers, project managers, skilled tradespeople—and you. Pioneers of the bungalows of the 21st century, Home& creates high-style, high-value homes that enhance life for urban dwellers and that contribute to economic growth and rising home values.
The logotype is rendered in custom lettering with softened edges, while the stylized ampersand symbol mimics the linework commonly seen on architectural plans. The two elements pair the rigid requirements of housebuilding with the warm fuzzies of homeownership.
The tagline “Homes Everybody Loves” reinforces the focus on the homebuyer, just as the name allows for individual interpretations, and succinctly captures the company’s purpose and values. The brand’s standards include modern typography and a color palette anchored in an exuberant blue reminiscent of clear skies and the freshness of something new.
Business cards were designed to ask the question: What do you love most about home? as a means of starting a conversation with potential homebuyers. With the buyer focus, the resulting conversation gives Home& team members an opportunity to share the unique experience of working with the builder in terms that will resonate best with each prospect.
Easy to read and navigate, the website establishes credibility for this long-time Chicago builder while providing an extensive library of homes built over the past 25 years.
The homepage features the builder’s latest development, in this case, Chicago’s new neighborhood The 12 (for which I also developed the name, brand, and marketing strategy). Each property includes an assortment of exterior and interior photographs, which visitors can click to view and download larger versions
