Basecamp SFH

Since its founding, Ranquist Development Group has established a reputation as one of Chicago’s most innovative homebuilders and developers. After launching their most ambitious project to date in Chicago’s Old Irving Park neighborhood — a community of 48 beautifully designed single-family homes on a stretch of up-and-coming Milwaukee Avenue — Ranquist discovered they needed a strong brand platform to attract the edgy, sophisticated urbanites who would bring this new micro-neighborhood to life, and approached us with the task.

Leveraging the success of Ranquist’s other “Basecamp” projects, we created a completely new version of the brand as Basecamp SFH, using the real estate SFH shorthand (single family home) to signal a project geared for those in-the-know. We also introduced a reference to the neighborhood as “New Irving Park” — a twist on the actual neighborhood name of Old Irvine Park.

We finished off the brand with a visual identity and logo that takes its form from the shape of the neighborhood. To cement the powerful brand messaging and visual identity, we turned towards activating the construction site, employing strong, colorful graphics.

Drawing inspiration from Ranquist’s playful brand voice, we created a message for the graphic around the campaign “Abbreviate Your Search” featuring the abbreviation “DYWTBANH?” (Do you want to buy a new house?) and other word games. The spirited and colorful messages created a textured juxtaposition against the physicality of the site’s hundreds of running feet of distressed brick walls, and the chaos of a construction site. To bring the vision to life, we partnered with Merderhaus, some of Chicago’s most talented sign painters.