Visual Branding Case Study: Cindy Blum, Realtor

Today is the first official day of summer and the longest day of the year--hooray!

To celebrate, I thought I'd share a super summery, Cape Cod-inspired branding project that Sara and I have just finished working on (as of yesterday).

The client is an amazing Cape Cod Realtor named Cindy Blum (also a yoga student, of course!), who came to me wanting a fun, colorful, lighthearted watercolor banner + logo to use on the new website she was designing. She said that most realtor's websites are boring and stuffy, but because she is selling properties at the beach (often vacation homes), she wanted her site to stand out as different and more carefree, flowy, and lifestyle-focused. 

So, that's what we set out to do! From the beginning, Cindy had a clear vision: she knew she wanted a red VW bus with surfboards on top. Thus, we started with her banner image (shown above) and worked backward from there. After settling on a banner image that she liked, I created her basic logo (shown below) and gave her some van options to work with...

At this point, I thought we were finished working together. I delivered Cindy's basic style guide (shown below) and started working on other client projects...

...But then, just a few days later, Cindy emailed me saying she wanted some watercolor "design elements" to be used on her website, in her newsletter, + beyond. She gave me a list of Cape Cod items that she wanted painted and I went to town.

The watercolor images we came up with are below: 

And then, wouldn't you know, Cindy decided that she'd like us to go ahead and design her website for her, too! We were flattered and excited ;)

We used her "header" on the main page (as shown in the screenshot below) and her logo on all subsequent pages (also pictured below). You can view Cindy's new website here. 

We also went on to design Cindy's monthly newsletter template:

And her email signature: 

...And just like that, Cindy Blum went from a Realtor with "normal" Realtor branding to a standout, fun, Cape Cod lifestyle brand. It was a total honor to work with Cindy and we couldn't have had more fun creating all of these designs for her!

​Want to learn more about Cindy? Check out her *new* website. Want to learn more about our branding services? Check out the Starr Struck Art + Design Studio website. 

Happy first day of summer, everyone!!!!