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Brand identity · Concept build

Vale Realty brand identity

Vale Realty is a concept I built to show what a full brand identity looks like. The agent is invented. The idea, the logo, the guidelines and every file are real work.

The idea

Every home seen from the water first.

On Kootenay Lake, a good agent takes buyers out in a boat before the showing. Listing photos are shot from the driveway and hide what a lakefront buyer pays for: the shore, the dock and the winter depth. The brand starts at the waterline.

How the idea was found

Listing photos on Kootenay Lake are shot from the driveway. They show a roof and a garage, and hide what a lakefront buyer is paying for: the shore, the dock, the depth and the evening light. Buyers here arrive by boat as often as by car. The brand had to start where they do.

  1. Not chosen

    The sounding

    Precise and quiet, but it reads as a boating supplier before a real estate agent, and a number on a sign confuses anyone who isn't a sailor.

    Concept: direction A, the sounding, the Vale Realty name in Gambetta Light with a small italic depth figure beside it
    Concept: direction A on the For Sale sign face

  2. Not chosen

    The dock

    Warm and local, but every lakefront agent in BC already reaches for the dock. An Okanagan or Shuswap agent could use it unchanged.

    Concept: direction B, the dock, a V made of two runs of dock planking seen from above, beside the name in capitals
    Concept: direction B on the For Sale sign face

  3. Chosen

    The waterline

    One line does the work. Land above, water below. It carries the promise on a sign, a card and a browser tab, and no other agent could wear it.

    Concept: the chosen mark, the waterline, a V inside a sounding ring cut by a dashed waterline, beside the Vale Realty name
    Concept: the chosen mark on the For Sale sign face

The mark

A sounding ring for a depth read from the boat, the V for Vale, and a dashed waterline with land above and water below. It holds up on a 24 pixel browser tab and on a 24 by 32 inch sign.

  • Concept: Vale Realty stacked logo in full colour
    Stacked
  • Concept: Vale Realty icon in full colourConcept: the Vale Realty icon at 24 pixels, browser tab size
    Icon at 24 px
  • Concept: Vale Realty horizontal logo in one colour, Sea Ink
    One colour
  • Concept: Vale Realty horizontal logo reversed out of Sea Ink
    Reversed

Colour and type

Six colours taken from the lake in November, and two typefaces: Gambetta for what you read first, Satoshi for everything you act on.

  • Mist

    #EDF0EF

  • Sea Ink

    #14212A

  • Terrain Teal

    #2E5E6E

  • Lake Tint

    #CFE0E4

  • Fog Grey

    #3B4A53

  • Marker Magenta

    #9B1F5E

Gambetta
Satoshi

In the world

A brand earns its keep on the small things: the card handed over on a dock, the sign on the lawn, the profile someone checks on the ferry.

Concept: Vale Realty For Sale sign and Callum Vale rider on a lakefront lawn on Kootenay Lake, a dock and mountains behindConcept build

Photograph generated for this concept. The artwork placed in it is the real kit.

The sign and rider are shown to test the brand at full size. Sign design is quoted with the brand when you need it.

Concept: Vale Realty business cards, front and back, lying on a weathered dock beside a cleat on Kootenay LakeConcept build

Photograph generated for this concept. The artwork placed in it is the real kit.

Concept: a hand holding a phone showing the Vale Realty social profile on a ferry crossing Kootenay LakeConcept build

Photograph generated for this concept. The artwork placed in it is the real kit.

Concept: the Vale Realty email signature for Callum Vale, Real Estate Advisor, Kootenay Lake, with the mark, the dashed waterline and a Your Brokerage line
Email signature

The guidelines

Twelve pages that keep every card, sign and post consistent, whoever makes it next.

Download the brand guidelines (PDF)
  • Concept: page 1 of the Vale Realty brand guidelines, the cover, with the Vale Realty name and the mark on Sea Ink
  • Concept: page 2 of the Vale Realty brand guidelines, the statement "Every home seen from the water first" with the brand personality
  • Concept: page 3 of the Vale Realty brand guidelines, the anatomy of the mark: sounding ring, V for Vale and the waterline
  • Concept: page 5 of the Vale Realty brand guidelines, clear space, minimum sizes and six ways not to use the logo
  • Concept: page 6 of the Vale Realty brand guidelines, the six colours with their values and accessible pairings
  • Concept: page 11 of the Vale Realty brand guidelines, voice and tone, with lines Callum says and lines he never says

What's in the package

Brand Identity is $1,500, and it includes the logo in every version you need, your colours and type, business cards, social profile graphics, a brand guidelines book and vector files you own outright.

Concept: the Vale Realty website homepage, the Water Tour opening on a lakefront home seen from the waterConcept build

The website built on this brand

The same brand runs the Vale Realty website, a concept that shows every lakefront home from the water first.

See the Vale Realty website case study

Want a brand like this for your business?

Vale Realty, Callum Vale and every listing shown are fictional. A concept build by Kootenay Made Digital.