REFRESHING. fun. CASUAL-CHIC.
Founded in 2013, Casey Menish Homes is a real estate company led by a woman who has always done things her own way. She’s founder of Lake Thoreau’s “Deckboat Disco,” epic evening parties on the lake. She’s president of her local Realtor association and contributor to her local newspaper. She’s made her beloved dog, Bob, her unofficial company mascot. She remains wholly and unapologetically herself, without sacrificing a sophisticated way of service.
To mark her new era of growth, Casey invited BLUEPRINT to help evolve her brand to reflect + fuel her continued business transformation. This led us to a visual and messaging strategy that articulates her story of growing up in business while staying bold, personal and playful.
On the messaging side of CMH, we first began a process of immersion into Casey’s ethos. Our lead writer, Emilie, researched her service target, surveyed past clients, and interviewed Casey herself to identify precisely why her work resonates so deeply with buyers and sellers. Turns out she’s both a trusted market authority and “the Realtor you want to have a beer with,” the one who proves that leveling up in real estate doesn’t mean erasing your joy or quirks.
STORY & MESSAGING DEVELOPMENT
From there we developed Casey’s precise brand mission and promise statements, articulated her personal story in real estate, and laid the strategic foundation for all future marketing copy.
The work birthed some hallmark headlines that are a rallying cry for Casey’s ethos of community and inclusion: “Always room at the table” and “Finding your place and your people” better chart the company’s unique path and expression. They also amplify CMH as an inclusive beacon for its clients — welcoming all to embrace community and even nurture their idiosyncrasies along the way.
visual BRAND IDENTITY
For the visual identity, we developed a new brand system that balances the sophisticated with the fun-loving.
The color palette for Casey Menish Homes establishes timeless trust with a bright and modern twist. Our hero red and blue tones are supported by a secondary palette with a balance of warm, slightly retro hues. When united, the system unlocks a number of interesting and vibrant combinations that are endlessly useful across hard-working print + digital applications.
For the leading Wordmark, we aimed to show off the brand’s confident personality yet retain practicality. Bold letterforms command attention, while subtle irregularities in the letterforms and modern-retro serif detailing present laid-back, youthful authenticity with a twist.
With these core elements in place, brand-building continued in the creation of essential supportive lockups, a stand-out monogram Icon, a logo-based pattern, styled taglines, and more.
Collaborating with our in-house illustrator, Christine, we crafted a suite of illustrative patterns and signature “brand doodles” that serve as both personality-rich storytelling pieces and functional devices.
THE BRAND DOODLES
For Casey, we envisioned a series of small artistic scenes that would not only speak to her real estate service (Casey’s warm welcome in the doorway of a home ready for touring; animated hands in motion during a client coffee consult), but to Casey’s personal story (including her dog, Bob) and the rituals of the Reston lake lifestyle.
Together the doodles form strong connection tissue amongst the messaging + lockups of the larger brand, evoking a sense of playfulness and human gesture that brings the story full circle.
We rounded out the artwork with more custom illustration: a pair of hand-drawn brand patterns that reflect the brand spirit of playful, imperfect levity, designed to make a charming statement on either print or digital collateral.
PATTERN ILLUSTRATION
Each piece captures and releases the core of Casey’s service spirit into the world, delivering her crisp combination of honest authority and relaxed fun through designs for postcards, flyers, signage and more.
MARKETING COLLATERAL
After completing the foundational brand-building phase, we created a suite of new marketing collateral for Casey, activating the new identity for launch.
"I feel like a real Realtor now, after years of feeling like two kids stacked on top of each other under a trench coat..."
KIND WORDS
"I spent 12 years building a brand that was completely reliant on my brokerage's branding, mixed with some DIY branding elements that were disjointed, scraped together, piecemeal. I realized it was time to take my small business seriously and give it the branding budget it had long awaited. (Because the only thing more expensive than hiring a professional, is not hiring a professional.)
"The new visual brand is an immediate display to prospective clients of what to expect from working with me. It perfectly reflects my retro-fun vibes, without crossing the line into unprofessional. You get the experience of working with a seasoned pro who has got your back, but is also the Realtor you want to grab a drink with and chat about reality TV.
"My new messaging is also a true reflection of what future clients can expect based on the real life experiences of my past clients. And I love how Emilie so clearly identified my deepest core value, which is community and inclusion — ensuring everyone has a seat at the table."
CASEY MENISH, FOUNDER
Leaning on our team for customization support, Casey rounded out her new marketing toolbox with a suite of client guides, using our signature studio templates as a clean base.
The guides bring a fresh take and unexpected voice to Casey’s buyer and seller journeys from contract to close.
BRANDED CLIENT GUIDES
Overall, the evolution of the Casey Menish Homes brand retains all the elements that endear her real estate service to her most fervent fans, while creating a space for her to grow and speak with greater authority and personality to a wider audience.
