Corporate marcom: TKE

Design language is not a singular voice. A case study in marketing the built environment.

Seen here are some excerpts from one of the projects I worked on with the Wordsearch team, brand development for the most prestigious real estate portfolio in Hong Kong. Redefining brand values and storytelling, new wordmarks, VI and guidelines, environmental, event and way-finding, brand books, location guide, and property particulars for their bazillionaire tenants.

Kadoorie Estates Limited are the property portfolio branch of the Kadoorie family holdings, alongside their other interests, which include the Peninsula hotels, an HK utilities company, and international trade. The Kadoorie family helped build Hong Kong, and as such heritage and conservation needed to remain central to their identity, as well as an understated luxurious feel – they are old-school and traditional, in both cultural and aesthetic terms.

To convey this message we used refined typography, vintage illustrations of indigenous flora, archive photography and maps, appropriate copy superlatives, and top-drawer materials. Our time spent hand-in-hand with client and stakeholders was invaluable. This was not a rebrand, or an opportunity to deliver experimentalist be-jazzle. It was a great exercise in restrained, detail-oriented brand development that required some contemporary polish, yet still felt well-established.

It was satisfying to work on something so traditional, where focus on material quality was prioritised over gaudy bling… (Ex)Pres Donald would be thoroughly dissatisfied with the absence of gilding.