Fortune Street takes on Northern Edge branding task

Start-up house building company Northern Edge is set to launch later this year with an identity, website and communication material created by Fortune Street.

The organisation is a partnership of four North East England housing associations and was one of the nine winners in Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott’s Design for Manufacture affordable housing competition last year. It is due to launch its first properties at Christmas.

According to Fortune Street designer Kyn Taylor, the consultancy was briefed to create an identity that reflected Northern Edge’s target audience of lower income, first-time buyers, without alienating other potential purchasers.

In response, the group came up with an identity that is ‘big, bold and colourful’, says Taylor. It is based on the concept of comparing the housing market to fashion products, with particular reference to jeans, as the logo is designed to represent a jeans tag. ‘Jeans are for everyone, there are styles to fit all shapes, sizes and budgets,’ explains Taylor.

Along with ‘bold typography’, the brand’s key corporate colours are black, yellow and white, with the addition of accent colours. Fortune Street has also used a series of ‘quirky renderings’ created by Urban Salon, the architect behind the project, in place of photography.

‘There is no product to speak of as yet,’ explains Taylor, ‘so we’ve used a montage of these quirky English designs instead of photography.’