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DeRose & Appelbaum was an established mid-sized San Francisco based commercial real estate firm.  They came to us in 2018 to create an entirely new brand that powerfully reflects the disruptive, creative brand they are today.

Maven: About

Maven (formerly DeRose & Appelbaum) handles sales, leasing, investing and property management in San Francisco. Their new brand needed to resonate with all types of clients from local independent businesses to International institutions and also communicate their breadth and depth of knowledge, passion and creativity. Like in many cases, we were limited on time but able to efficiently build their strategic brand platform which then led to design and communications.

Business Growth
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Hand Holding Color Swatches

Brand strategy

We began by creating a brand platform that powerfully reflects the new brand as well as the business and team as they both grow.

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Competitive and inspirational brand audits were instrumental to uncover white space for the new brand.  

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We had numerous collaborative work sessions and brainstorms with the team. 

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Naming

A new name was needed to accurately the newly created brand platform. 

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We developed naming criteria, brief and assembled the team, including the clients, to ultimately land on "maven". 

design

We then embarked on the logo and visual system for Maven. 

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We created design brief, led conceptual development, design reviews and recommended evolution and optimizations of designs. 

Maven: Team

Before & After

Maven: Projects
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Before

  • Previous logo featured a bright orange, unique and memorable

  •  Previous name didn't reflect the diversity and creativity of the team and approach 

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After

  • Name more effectively communicates creative expert and stands out amongst the dozens of commercial competitors,

  • Font for Maven was inspired by upscale fashion and design brands

  • Lower case was chosen for Maven to be more approachable   

  • Complementary block font was used to balance seriousness and approachability

We also explored highlighting the "ave" part of "maven" given its connection with real estate but ultimately preferred how "maven" read without

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