Cobu

Project Duration: July 2018–October 2018
Studio Services: Branding

Project Information

Background

Cobu, formerly known as Doorbell Communities, is a Boston-based tech start-up with the mission of bringing people together in their own apartment complexes. They've built an application that both activates the community within the building, and unifies them through community manager-led activities indicative of their neighborhoods. Aside from the tenants, Cobu targets the property managers as well; leveraging the ability to maintain longer tenant stay, and providing more value to the property through enhancing the quality of tenant lifestyle.

The Challenge

Around the time the design phase began, the company changed its name to Cobu; a hybrid of "community" and "building." Cobu, therefore, needed a new brand direction & visual identity to reflect its core values of inclusion, connections, and most importantly, home.

Our Solution

We worked with the Cobu team to create a brand identity reflected the warmth of their mission and values. This identity system would go on to influence the design of their product.

Brand Strategy

Among all things, a strong brand is made from the inside out. When we first engaged with Cobu, a short but rigorous Discovery Phase consisting of a survey and workshop exercises revealed that the mission came from somewhere personal; the backstory featuring the CEO’s mother and her moving to a new place, only to feel isolated in her new home.

As a start-up, their objectives were simple: multi-family property managers install the Cobu application within their complex, tenants download the application, and from there they’re able to take part in community-building activities in their new neighborhoods. Through this, Cobu strives to create an environment of inclusion and, ultimately, a new definition of “home.” This and many other insights came through in commentary amongst the entire team, in numerous spirited conversations.

Brand Identity

Tackling the identity system after the Discovery phase and brand strategy was a challenge, but a welcome one. We knew we needed something that would appeal to tenants, feel welcoming and even fun, but it also had to appeal to the multi-family property managers who would leverage the platform, as well as investors. From an initial exploration of post-modern design styles, numerous logos were explored, sketched, and tightened up for presentation.

The chosen concept, featuring a playful handshake within the “o,” was iterated on until deemed perfect by the team. From there, a logo family created for maximum flexibility was put into place, along with typography and a dynamic and lively color palette. Additionally, a suite of custom icons were explored for the various features of the Cobu application.