Housing.com is a relatively new name in real estate, which was initiated two years ago by a group of people who had been around the block looking for a place to stay, and had met every stumbling block anyone who’s ever looked for housing faces: shady brokers, unverified properties, remote locations, fake listings, you name it. Housing the website and app feature only verified listings, neatly sorted by price, location, etc. which you can pinpoint on a map.
But we won’t tell you about the pros and cons of the Housing app or website in terms of function and user-friendliness. For sure, a lot of app reviewers will be doing that soon, if they haven’t already. What interests us as designers is the (re-)branding of Housing, and the making of their brand identity, designed by Moving Brands, who have clients like HP, Song, Google Play and Netflix. Moving Brands excel at telling the story behind each brand their design. And Housing, by far, is the best of them all.
The logo is a simple upward-pointing arrow, which is also reminiscent of the roof of a house in the universally-known and immediately-identifiable house logo. Their new mantra is Look Up, and the video by Moving Brands, showing the evolution of the logo is a must-watch for every designer and non-designer.
Bright, contrasting colors, fast-moving images of India (that point toward Housing’s promise of delivering results ten-times faster than existing websites), interspersed with the tops of buildings shot at a right angle, the edges of which form the Look Up logo, appear to the catchiest tune heard lately: one that is distinctly Indian without being cliché.
A couple of days ago, Housing ran their branding video as a commercial on YouTube. The timing could not have been more perfect, with Housing running full front-page ads in all major newspapers on Holi: the color-splashed ad was completely time-relevant, and struck the right chord by connecting it to the festival.
For those who have seen their addictive video or even just the print ad, even Google today seems to say Housing rather than Holi!
PS: Here are a couple of other very interesting videos following the similar theme, Look Up.
Last year, Gary Turk urged us to look up from our phones and notice the real world around us:
The American Institute of Architects explains the process architects follow, which begins by looking up. Check out #iLookup for more.