Branding | UX/UI | Art Direction
Highlighting the beauty in commercial real estate.
Hager Pacific Properties specializes in acquiring, rehabilitating and repositioning industrial, retail, office and multi-family properties. Using its own substantial internal capital, Hager Pacific Properties specializes in acquiring aging, vacant, environmentally impacted or under-performing properties throughout the United States. All together HPP, owns and operates over 100 properties valuing at nearly $2 Billion.
Hager Pacific approached Idea Hall with the hopes of updating their website with a strong desire to update their portfolio with ease compared to the static website that they currently had in place. In the process of going through their site and other brand materials we felt that it was an opportunity to bring their brand forward and make a splash in the industry to really stand out compared to their competitors. Accomplishing both of these goals was going to be difficult due to the time and limited budget of the client and the current contract in place. Efficiency and planning was key to success.
In addition to designing the branding, I was tasked with re-thinking the site map structure based on the researched we gathered, designing out the UX and UI, art directing both the architectural and portrait photoshoots, developing the website using Webflow, as well as strategizing and producing assets such as email templates and stationary for the brand and site launch.
Our approach to updating the mark and other brand materials was to elevate rather than re-imagine. The brand equity with the current mark and colors was really strong so we knew that any update had to feel familiar and uniquely HPP. We started by going through all of the brands previous marks throughout its history. This allowed us to really see what colors were used, shapes and typography. The mark that we designed was built around the most recent mark, while increasing the weight that way it could be scaled down while retaining legibility.
From a typography standpoint, we wanted to play homage to the early days of the company when a strong serif was being used as the primary mark, we brought this back using Abril Display. The elegance of Abril was paired with a an open and rounded sans serif to create a wide bit of contrast while still keeping legibility on digital media.
Our Colors was one of the most unique elements to the brand. During our initial meeting the client really emphasized that they wanted to "Keep California in the brand." They wanted to truly own where they were from as they started growing their company across the county. After going through their brand materials, we discovered they had consistency problem, using nearly 30 different variations of colors. We started by organizing the colors and trying to see what colors were being used the most and what colors worked together the best. Through the process we found the cor colors of the brand, and with some slight adjustments we had a pallet that felt familiar, elevated and modern. Pushing the colors one step further, we attached meaning to each swatch. Remembering the clients' comments on keeping california in the brand we decided that representing the "Four California Climates" was the route to go. Redwood Forest Night: Navy with hints of green, Tranquil Water: saturated light green with blue undertones, Desert Sandstone: warm white, and Snow Capped Mountains: Solid White.
After the in-depth discovery phase, we learned that the main priority for the new UX was going to be simplification. Property assets was the main driver of the site for all of the various audiences, bringing the properties together into one searchable and filterable page was key to success. This would make all properties in their portfolio, easier to find and share. In all areas of the site we wanted to make everything easy to update on the client's end. This meant utilizing dynamic CMS-based content whenever possible. This includes, news articles, team members, properties, and reference letters.
We moved the brand forward not only through a new mark and refined color pallet but also through photography. Across the board, HPP's competitors were using outdated, low resolution photos often taken by a cellphone and was did not highlight the property and HPP's hard work to renovation of the spaces. Our solution to combat this was working with award-winning architectural photographer Paul Traung out of Los Angeles. Together with the client, we selected the right properties to highlight for the site. With new beautiful photography in hand we were able to move the beauty of these spaces to the forefront of the website and be the main driver to get viewers to engage. Additionally we wanted to approach the team page a little differently, bringing forward more personality and consistency. We decided that it would be best to have a full team photoshoot, this would replace the sometimes inconsistent and outdated low resolution images that was being used currently.
