What is it that makes a home? Often, purchasing a house is one of the biggest decisions someone will make in their lifetime, yet the Real Estate industry has a far from glamorous or trustworthy reputation. Williams2 Real Estate understands this, and has been operating out of the Cayman Islands for 20+ years as the second largest real estate company in the country.
They came to us with two goals in mind: to close the integrity gap that exists within the real-estate market as we know it, and to expand globally. In order to properly prepare for global expansion, they asked us to completely rework their brand position and identity, create a full communications strategy, and custom build a fresh and (globally) scalable website and digital product.
Williams2 continued growth and success was a reputation based on experience, longevity and a high quality standard of care. Their relationships are based in meaningful interactions and collaboration. But this alone was not enough to maintain position in the market, or even break into new ones. We wanted them to continue to leverage the value of their relationship centric approach, but not solely rely on it.
The future is no longer delivering four walls to buyers, sellers and tenants. To win, they had to go beyond the four walls of a home. With heartfelt relationships at the core, they weren’t just talking about homes, bricks and mortar. They were talking to their clients about their lives. Through their trusted relationships, Williams2 were able to help clients design the life they wanted to live.
We designed the brand around the core-concepts of vision and intention; "how do you want to live your life?” We initially started with the window as our visual basis which then expanded into the idea of using a frame to hold the vision of an owner’s life. The Williams2 logomark is built around a capitalized W within a physical square, which is the foundation of a brand identity system based on insight, vision and intentionality. The shapes within the frame represent different aspects of the relationship Williams2 builds with their clients, like creating partnerships or finding homes. Each client has their own vision of how they want to live their life which is reflected through the versatility of the shapes to create personalized journeys.
The now fully capitalized wordmark imbues a sense of ownership over the space and an updated colour palette helps reflect the more mature nature of a global real-estate company, while still bringing with it some of the Cayman coastline.
When bringing their new brand onto their website, we focused on making sure Williams2 displayed the fact that they go beyond your typical real estate service. We applied their shape system throughout the website on photos and micro-interactions to tie into their brand in subtle ways. Property cards were designed for quick client scanning by having icons represent important information. Coupled with the addition of fully listed out Features and a custom gallery for properties, Williams2 welcomed a new wave of clients that were ready to design their life with the Williams2 team.
