Dn&co adds warmth and humanity to its identity for Showhere with Hollie Fuller’s charming illustrations

The company, a new subsidiary of the design studio, aims to help the real estate sector present their projects in a more compelling and adaptable way.

Date
25 February 2021

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The property sector is one of many that has had to quickly adapt to lockdown, with restrictions making on-site visits and in-person presentations tricky if not impossible. With experience in place branding and seeing a gap in the market for a more modern, adaptable way to present real estate projects, design studio Dn&co has stepped up with Showhere. The company – a new subsidiary of Dn&co – introduces software that progresses the real estate world a stage on from presenting through PDFS, and comes imbued with a visual identity that intentionally shakes off stereotypes of the sector.

“The business world revolves around PDFs, but people don’t just tell linear stories any more, they jump back and forth through a presentation to create a narrative that suits who they’re talking to at the time,” explains Patrick Eley, co-founder of Showhere and creative director of dn&co. Showhere, he says, is instead intuitive and flexible, allowing those presenting a project to adapt their assets to anything from a five minute pitch to a half an hour full tour. It also lets users embed interactive elements, films, animations, hidden speaker notes and multi-layered content, with data hosted on the device to avoid any lag or awkward buffering moments.

For the identity, Eley and the team looked at both the real estate and tech sectors. Real estate brands “vary from dry and corporate to bombastic luxury,” he describes, but with Showhere focusing on the people telling the stories behind their projects, “the brand needed to feel human”. He says tech brands have “simplified their visual language” with bright colours and a light-hearted, approachable tone to explain complex concepts. “It was important the Showhere identity wasn’t too technical or niche, but at the same time it needed to be serious and trustworthy.” So, a strong identity by the studio has been infused with these character traits courtesy of illustrations by Hollie Fuller, one of It’s Nice That’s Graduates of 2019. “Illustration means we can represent intangible concepts, such as networks and upgrades, avoiding tired stock imagery of meeting rooms and grinning colleagues,” Eley continues.

Fuller’s illustrations “serve as a wonderful antidote to what is expected in this sector,” adds design director Sam Jones, who says the character’s expressive proportions, restrained use of line and bold colours convey warmth. “With a focus on storytelling and human connection, her work reinforces the idea of a brand that above all, puts people at the centre."

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Hollie Fuller for Dn&co: Showhere identity (Copyright © Dn&co, 2021)

Jones explains that the wordmark is inspired by Showhere’s flexible user interface for telling stories, and is therefore, in its moving form, “revealed and hidden in parts… letting the user know that there’s more to what one immediately sees”. The supporting marque, an emoticon smiley face, is referred to as Showhere’s mascot, “taking visual cues from shapes within the wordmark while celebrating people that are at the heart of the identity,” and also linking to its tech. According to Jones, the glyphs used to create the mascot subtly reference the programming language used to build the Showhere software.

Colour is also key to this brand’s personality and place in the real estate world, using a light emerald green and complementary coral tone to add warmth and “cut through in a competitor landscape that is full of straight-jacketed restraint,” says Jones. The brand uses Favorit by Dinamo, which the designer says balances “a firm sense of geometry that echoes early-screen font rendering, with characterful flicks and a witty touch”.

Ultimately Showhere sets out to help clients “tell great stories” while “digitally fixing inefficiencies we see in the sector,” says Joy Nazzari, co-founder of the new company and founding director of Dn&co. “Proptech’ is a burgeoning industry, with digital products disrupting and transforming the very traditional real estate sector, until recently perhaps seen as a late-adopter of technology. As they say, need is the mother of invention, and the pandemic catapulted the real estate industry further into digital transformation, creating an opportunity for us to help people and businesses to adapt quickly. Our technology, our experience and the size of the market meant that the opportunity went well beyond a digital product to merit us setting up a new company and business model around the product.”

Showhere has patents pending in the UK with a group of beta customers including British Land, Argent Related, Stanhope, Hines, CBRE and JLL. An invite-only release is planned for this summer; companies can sign up to the waiting list here.

GalleryDn&co: Showhere identity (Copyright © Dn&co, 2021)

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Illustrations by Hollie Fuller

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Illustrations by Hollie Fuller

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Hollie Fuller for Dn&co: Showhere identity (Copyright © Dn&co, 2021)

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About the Author

Jenny Brewer

Jenny oversees our editorial output. She was previously It’s Nice That’s news editor. Get in touch with any big creative stories, tips, pitches, news and opinions, or questions about all things editorial.

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