7 Tips for Home Builder Logo Design

Ah, the logo. The first thing that most people think of when they think about branding. Your logo is an essential piece of your intricate home builder brand puzzle. At its most basic function, it should make its viewer say, “oh right, those guys.” At its best, it has the power to make its viewers say, “I must buy a home from them” and then they tell all their friends how great you are. Here are some tips to get your company’s logo closer toward the latter.

Home Builder Logo Design Tips

1. Your logo needs to be built on a foundation.

Before you can create or redesign your logo, choose your brand colors and fonts, or form your brand personality, you need to make sure you lay the foundation that your entire brand identity will be built on. Get down on paper what makes you unique in your market, your core values, your mission statement — then you’re ready to create the brand identity with a strategic logo that conveys what makes your company special.

2. Don’t put too much pressure on your logo.

Your logo is a small piece of your brand puzzle. Rarely will a buyer happen upon your logo on its own. It’s almost always accompanied by or close to your brand colors, fonts, voice, photography, sales rep, OSC, model home, etc.. So you can’t put all the pressure on your logo to tell your whole story. Your logo has its own job to do, and it needs to do it well, but it’s a team effort. That’s why at Group Two, we create a brand mood board before we begin logo design. That way when we have your logo options, we can evaluate them within your brand identity, to make sure all the pieces fit together.

3. Your logo needs to match your brand personality.

The elements of your brand identity work together to represent your brand personality. Think about it like this — if you build $1M+ custom homes, your brand personality needs to match the type of personality a $1M+ buyer would expect to interact with. And not all luxury buyers are the same. Are your buyers snowbirds or looking for adventure? Do they have kids that are still in school? The answers to questions like these factor into your brand personality, and your logo is the face of that personality.

 

4. Look to other industries for inspiration.

Remember, besides resale, other builders are obviously your main competition. The easiest way to be innovative when it comes to your look, is to look less like everyone else. Your buyers are interacting with hundreds of brands every day, and your brand identity needs to be as cutting edge and design-forward as every other brand they’re interacting with. Buyers today are savvier than ever, and they wouldn’t think twice about discounting you because you look dated, or as if you don’t understand them.

5. You actually don’t need a house in your logo.

Ok, here’s the thing. If you have a house in your logo, we’re not saying it’s bad. We’ve seen builder logos with houses in them that made sense, or were executed a little more unexpectedly, and they worked really well. What we’re saying is, you don’t need to. You don’t need to be worried that your buyers won’t know what your company does if you don’t have a house in your logo. This comes back to your logo not needing to tell your whole story, because it will never be displayed entirely on its own. The context around your logo will tell your prospects what you do and how you do it. Think of it this way; Apple doesn’t have a computer in their logo, Nike doesn’t have a sneaker in their logo… you get the point.

6. You don’t need to be clever about it.

In design school, students look at so much “clever” graphic design. Everyone in class would “ooh” and “ahh” over the logo for a company called Bird Garden where the icon was a bird that was contorted into the shape of a flower. As designers, it’s fun when we get an opportunity to do a Bird Garden, but we can’t force it if it isn’t there. Your logo needs to be effective, and “clever” doesn’t always earn brand loyalty and sales. 

7. Make it memorable.

We know we said not to put too much pressure on your logo, but making it memorable is actually simpler than it sounds. Your logo is going to appear over and over, consistently, across many mediums and platforms. The key is to not make it too complicated. You need buyers to associate the image they see with your company right away, so simplicity and readability are essential.

For more information on how Group Two can design or freshen up your home builder logo design, contact us – we’d love to help!

Share this post: