RURAL HIPBRAND

JDS : branding . logo . print

In the spring of 2004, I was nearing graduation from architecture school when I received my first commissioned graphic design project. At the time Max Levy Architect and a developer were in the early stages of planning an avant-garde ‘housing edition’. The new development was called Rural Hip, and its premise was modest pieces of modernism set on generous rural plots a little ways outside of Dallas. The charge of the project for me was to generate brand identity including a logo and mailer packet to probe outside interest.

The logo was developed while considering the calculated and intuitive nature of man. Ultimately, the work was centered on combining orthogonal with organic, a strict grid with curvilinear contours, and a crisp form with life encompassed.

Brand recognition of the mark would be achieved by repeating the exact layout of the company name interacting with a perfect square. The image within the square would change from one ad campaign to the next. The varying ‘swatches’ of nature on a bright white background would draw minds in the city to the quieter, more spacious Rural Hip.