Richie Lavery is an established photographer specialising in all aspects of high-end imaging, from portraiture and architectural to interior and exterior photography. Richie’s business has gained some major traction since working across Northern Ireland on high spec building projects and as part of this grown he approached kaizen Brand Evolution to develop a new brand positioning for him. The new brand would be a stand-alone, luxury property marketing business with scope to work further a field in the UK, Ireland and beyond. In preparation for the new venture Richie required a full name generation for the new business as well as a brand strategy. Following a business profiling exercise and extensive research project on the industry landscape we named the new business ‘PHANTOM’. Phantom sets a visual narrative for the business and made way for a ream of engaging brand language. With the name in place we set out on the brand identity, narrative and strategy focussing on the target audience and types of houses and assets that Richie aspired to work on. The ambition setting at the very start of the process allowed for a clear path to a successful branding project. Richie’s ambition was to be at the cutting edge of property marketing, utilising new technologies and modern methods of capturing the unique selling points of a property to entice potential ‘big spend’ buyers.
The mark itself is a typographic logo with a brand device ingrained in the letter ‘H.’ The type used is a timeless font family which translates effortlessly online and in print, always reflecting the high-end nature of the work of Phantom. We introduced a language set for the brand that plays on the meaning of phantom and that nicely ties in with the nature of the business. Statements such as ‘unreal estate marketing’ really emphasise the namesake and put a positive spin on how ‘UNREAL’ the skillset of the property marketing company are. Everything that Richie has to offer in Phantom does actually seem unreal- it’s so good. Elements such as drone fly-overs, full micro sites for a property, and virtual-reality tours of a home – all of this is absolutely unreal when you see it in action making way for the organic slogan. Once we developed the clear strategy for the new brand we began the implementation stage utilising the new brand device across Richie’s branded materials – website, vehicle, marketing brochures and business stationery. The device performs very well when used alone and is an instant recognisable mark for the brand without pulling focus from any of the other brand elements. It’s a sleek, contemporary mark that when broken down is justified – the logo build stems from the shimmer from a luxury jewel and the reflection in glass, creating the H effect. We introduced a deep stone colour palette for the brand, which echoes the nature of the work materials and textures. The brand colour palette is soft and subtle which allows the high-end photography, videography and work to really shine.
From the naming process, brand narrative and strategy to the design and implementation the Phantom brand now stands out amongst its competitors and successfully communicates the values, work, dedication and skillset of the team. With plans to first launch the new Phantom brand at the Belfast Telegraph Awards ceremony we look forward to working with Richie as his brand evolves. The Phantom branding was such an exciting project to be a part of from the very start, seeing the name generation flourish into a strong identifiable brand is something we’re very proud of here at Kaizen Brand Evolution and as the brand grows we will remain brand guardians keeping every brand touch point on power with the work done to date.