Fore
I was part of Flow and Form, a leading real estate technology agency. We delivered workplace management, tenant experience, and smart building solutions to international clients, including JLL and WeWork. In 2021, we received the Deloitte Fast 50 award, having grown revenue by over 7x.
As the company evolved, we felt our brand didn't quite reflect the impact or significance of the work. We decided to rebrand, and I took initiative to lead the process. On top of new brand positioning and identity, we also had a new name — Fore.
Landscape
I assembled a team of one designer, a marketing specialist, and myself, in alignment with the founders. We discussed our frustrations with the dark, inorganic aesthetics of tech, and the overtly loud and bubbly character of agencies.
We also dissected the cliches of real estate — cityscapes, office buildings, and construction sites. This $300 trillion industry, otherwise slow to adopt new technology, was also bland and generic in its branding.
Real estate was oversaturated with stock images like these.
Naming was of great significance, as Flow and Form proved too abstract over the years. We sought one simple and memorable word to carry the brand.
We submitted three names each. Fore, as suggested by one of my colleagues, stuck out to our CEO, who saw it as an acronym for the Future of Real Estate.
The final name contenders. I suggested Amain and Uden.
Voice
I led the team in a direction that avoids jargon, buzzwords, trend-hopping and "paradigm-shifting disruptive forces".
This also meant steering away from HR clichés in employer branding, such as giving our employees a demonym like Googlers or Amazonians. That said, one of our colleagues once used the term "Foreman". I'm still upset about it.
Fore brand guidelines aren't in any way prescriptive, but rather subject to individual interpretation — however, still in alignment with our values.
The language is intentionally plain, putting focus on the substance without inflating or sensationalising its importance. This humility offered a rational, grounded, human take on technology we thought timeless and refreshing.
The Fore team.
Aesthetics
Fore graphics are designed to be one notch above brandless. Plain and monochrome with no visual distractions — merely a canvas for the actual content.
Additional emphasis is put on grids, sharp corners, and employing negative space generously.
We looked past the generic skylines, office spaces and architectural patterns, and zoomed in instead — depicting human interactions with technology, displaying the purpose behind spaces.
Paul Cézanne was among the first to break down objects into simple geometric shapes — seeing the world in spheres, cones, and cylinders.
Our take was a bit pointier. I also really liked the logo for the Long Island, NY band, Car Bomb.
Forever waiting for an excuse to, I created a bespoke typeface to be used at Fore across all media.
Inspired by ITC Avant Garde, Plinth is light, strictly geometrical, and subtly styled with angled lines and extensive ligatures.
Put together, we had the foundations for a brand that is, as Ryan Schreiber described the Berlin group To Rococo Rot, “unmistakably digital, yet 100% human.” – Pitchfork
In space
Brand guidelines are often optimised for either print or digital media. I wanted Fore to work equally well in both.
I campaigned not to plaster our colleagues with logos, opting for subtlety instead. We gave them plain black T-shirts they would actually want to wear, and collaborated with a local coffee roastery on a branded coffee blend.
Each box would contain a secret, special sweet treat tailored to each individual's liking.
Physical space is an important and often overlooked vessel for brand visibility. This was especially true at Fore, where spaces are our domain. Both as a partner and an employer, our spaces were a profound way of introducing ourselves.
Influenced by Polestar spaces, I outlined pointers for office interior design and conference booths.
Website
I redesigned our website with success stories and insights into our team, and built it in Webflow.
We also planned to get a showreel recorded, inspired by the ones from Oui Will and Locomotive.
We debated whether or not to highlight the future-of-real-estate backronym.
Result
The rebranding effort was comprehensive, and took place during our largest growth in headcount. However, our main focus at the time was an in-house product called FloorMap.
Its success would go on to change the course of history for the company. I wrote another case study about it.
