Design by: Mark Busse (GDC) and Mathilde Salvert

About the design

When Amacon, a prominent Canadian real estate developer, wanted to really differentiate their latest condo project at East 7th and Main Street in Vancouver they also wanted to stray away from the ubiquitous, unoriginal, copy-cat identity and marketing design that permeates the BC lower mainland landscape. They asked Industrial Brand to help them break free and capture the essence of the neighbourhood.

Before starting with the naming portion of the project, Industrial Brand established that to stand out it needed to link to the history of the site and culture of the area, a Collective created by the souls and actions of its residents: shops, food, art, architecture, and events made by the aggregate of their ideas and values. And most importantly, it had to be genuine. This meant tossing out overused words, phrases and adjectives such as urban, spacious, luxury, incredible, spectacular and legendary!









Industrial Brand created the name District for the project to bring to mind the name of a favourite bar, restaurant or shop as much as to define the area within the neighbourhood. In fact, even elements for the logo were found on the street, including on tree grates.

Since the staff at Industrial Brand work and live in the area already, they geared up with their cameras and set out to capture the people, places and things that make Main Street, well, Main Street. They did this several times throughout the project and many of these images have been used throughout the materials.





These materials included: stationery, teaser and launch websites, email template, twitter site branding, promotional brochure and advertising. In addition, Industrial Brand developed all the site singage including giant 40 x 2 foot billboards, the presentation centre exterior signage and interior branding and messaging.

In a market still recovering from the recent economic downturn, the project was 94% sold on the opening day. The balance sold within a week, leading the way for the developer to expand the project to the planned second building much earlier than expected. A success by all measures, and sure to be a great place to live shortly.



Client: Amacon
Design firm: Industrial Brand
Creative credits: Mark Busse, Ben Garfinkel, Matt SamyciaWood
Copyright: 2009 Industrial Brand

About the designer

Industrial Brand is a full service graphic design firm, branding consultancy and interactive agency based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. They specialise in corporate identity, branding, communication design, advertising campaigns, interactive design and website development. Industrial Brand was founded by Creative Director Ben Garfinkel and Design Director Mark Busse in 1997.

Mark Busse
Industrial Brand
106 - 336 East 1st Avenue
Vancouver, British Colombia
V5T 4R6 Canada
T: +1 604 737 1958
F: +1 604 737 4347
E:
W: www.industrialbrand.com