Brand Character
Led collaborative client workshops to establish a Brand Character for expressing a newly consolidated brand
Guidelines
Constructed a character narrative and practical application guidelines for the new brand character across multiple touch points
Real estate technology client | Lippincott 2023
As part of Zillow, ShowingTime+ offers real estate agents tools that allow them to do business more efficiently and make their listings stand out. I'm proud to say I helped land this client for Lippincott, pitching them the importance of brand character in expressing the value of the many tools they offer.
As ShowingTime+ reworks their design system, the brand character and principles we conceived can help guide that development. Character can drive everything from marketing and social media to web experiences and live conference interactions.
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Key to the build of this character was rooting it in the brand's existing promise. The right brand character would help communicators and designers express these brand fundamentals in non-literal ways. This helps build trust through authenticity and experience, and lessens a sense of marketing or salesmanship.​ This was especially important so that the guidelines could align with all forms of expression (color, logo, motion, image, illustration, etc.) when the visual redesign was ready to begin.
I really enjoyed working in the real estate space -- it's an area that holds my personal interest, so I consider this project a win-win-win!
Personality that's more than just "human"
An ownable brand character has a personality all its own. While there were many attributes the ShowingTime+ brand personality could embody, stakeholders collectively determined how far in any one direction these attributes might go. This provided valuable data in a process that was both methodical and collaborative, ensuring the defined character will:
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reflect the brand promise
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distinguish the brand from competitors
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flex across different contexts
Character that zooms in and out
The guideline deliverable focused on brand voice, but began with high-level orientation -- a zoom-out to the brand's purpose and promise, supported by pillars that are constants. This way, any extension of the character's application into visual or CX would be just that -- an extension as opposed to a replacement.
To this end, our named brand character had a narrative to flesh out who they are, what they stand for and how they show up for ShowingTime+ users.​ From there, the guideline drilled down further into principles for expression and do's and don'ts for writing, along with practical application examples and even some granular in-app rewrites.
Sample guideline pages -- partially blurred for privacy/confidentiality:
