When ArtHaus came to us, they were Artthaus. Their portfolio of residential buildings had grown organically over the years, creating a mix of value-add projects and all-new construction that didn’t sit easily under one umbrella. In addition to multi-family, they also had a commercial building for creative entrepreneurs under the same name. Their developer and investment arm was under an entirely separate name. The result was both internal and external confusion.
Purpose-built for better.
ArtHaus is reimagining workforce housing. Based in Oakland, they’re addressing the Bay Area housing crisis by not just building apartments people can afford, but building spaces people love. ArtHaus needed a brand to communicate their incredibly multi-faceted offering and deeply mission driven approach. Flux dove deep to rebuild the brand from the ground up.
Client
Riaz Capital
Real Estate
Arthaus
- Brand Architecture
- Brand Positioning
- Brand Naming
- Messaging Toolkit
- Brand Identity
- Brand Manual
- Brochures
- Email Template
- PowerPoint Template
- Signage Concepts
- Environmental Design
- Merch Design
- Art Book
- Web Design
Brand Architecture
We like to have a guiding principle for every brand we do. There are lots of goals along the way– but a guiding principle is the north star for our decision making. Here, it was SIMPLICITY. So we streamlined, reorganized, and renamed the entire brand architecture to make it simple and unified. And we dropped the extra t to make it even simpler.
Brand Positioning
ArtHaus isn’t just building apartments, they’re deeply invested in uplifting individuals and communities. We came up with the concept of “purpose-built” to communicate their approach. It encompasses the fact that they build purposefully– designing specifically for the needs of the urban workforce– but they’re also building for a larger purpose: to help people live better in cities.
Brand Identity
They needed a visual system that was unique and memorable but also flexible enough to expand to the entire brand portfolio. The mark also had to be fully custom and protectable, as the name itself was not available for trademark. We created a custom logotype that nods to Bauhaus but feels distinctly modern, and immediately communicates that ArtHaus is design forward and different.
We created an iconmark that takes the A and H down to their most simplified forms. The result looks like a house and apartment building as well as the letterforms. We made a monogram for tight spaces and extra cool factor.
We carried the same idea over to all the sub-brands, creating a system of simple but powerful marks all made up of the same core elements. Each sub-brand was given a distinct color palette to set it apart from the rest while always ensuring they fit cohesively within the larger brand world.
With no custom lifestyle photography and no time for a photoshoot, we got creative with building out the ArtHaus look. Architectural frame elements are used to customize stock photography, a simple but effective way to make any image feel ArtHaus. We created a stock library of images that fit the ArtHaus vibe for future use.
Messaging
In an extensive messaging toolkit, we created key messages at each level of the brand architecture. By linking each message to a clear promise, we gave ArtHaus the tools to talk about their varied portfolio and multi-faceted approach in a cohesive and easy to understand way, always speaking in the brand voice.
Brand Expansion
We carried the look and voice across all touchpoints, including email and presentation templates, web design, merch, printed collateral, signage and more.
Brand Manual
We know brands are only as good as the team that keeps them alive. We created a 200 page manual that details all the positioning, messaging, and identity guidelines for the entire brand portfolio.
