Client
Engel & Völkers
Industry
Overview
Engel & Völkers is the leading platform for real estate agents, specialising in the brokerage of luxury and premium residential property, commercial real estate, yachts and aircraft with over 40 years of experience. Across 1,000 locations in more than 30 countries spanning five continents, this iconic brand is now evolving its brand experience.
Following rapid growth and an ambitious plan to make its brand digital-first, the global implementation of the work follows a highly collaborative two-year development process. It includes creative ethos, a new villa symbol, brand architecture, and other components of the overall design system. The new brand experience reflects the company’s uniquely premium lifestyle by bringing competence, exclusivity and passion to every client interaction.
The new branding reflects the evolutionary development of our company – which has grown successfully around the globe in recent years and continuously becomes more digitised – without losing sight of its identity and core values. The new wordmark and the iconic, now detached villa symbol combine both heritage and modernity while being clear and timeless.
Christian Völkers
Founder and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Engel & Völkers
Strong brand as a differentiator in the global marketplace
While the real estate industry is constantly evolving in response to growing demands, market fluctuations and advancing digitalisation, the corporate values of Engel & Völkers have endured for more than 40 years.
‘Competence, exclusivity and passion are the core components that make up our distinctive brand identity. Our culture and the high quality standards of our real estate agents are rooted in these values – always striving to provide our clients with the finest possible service. Our new branding reflects the new zeitgeist, all while ensuring that the brand functions as a strong recognition factor for all stakeholders,’ said Sven Odia, Global CEO of Engel & Völkers.
Refining an icon
The most significant changes to the brand experience are part of the first major rebrand for Engel & Völkers in 40 years and are based on modifications to creative ethos, the logo and the creation of a custom typeface. The iconic E&V villa has been adapted and detached from the traditional wordmark. Saffron partnered with type foundry Dalton Maag to develop a simple, modern typeface for E&V. The scalable digital design unifies the complex global network of owned and licensed digital platforms for users and devices across languages and platforms.
‘We pursued the mission to refine our brand digital-first and scalable to support the company’s growth while reflecting a premium brand positioning – celebrating the strong heritage of our brand and taking it into a new era. Our project was dedicated to creating a living design system and the infrastructure for distributing the new assets. With a scalable architecture, our bespoke typeface, and high flexibility in the layout system, as well as a new brand platform, we will enable our network to create a coherent and advanced experience for our clients worldwide,’ said Lara Maier, Head of Brand Management at Engel & Völkers.
A strong foundation for growth
The strategic foundation of the project was defining the creative ethos ‘Better Living’, reflecting the company’s premium lifestyle offer and elevating its brand identity by enhancing details that celebrate superior quality of service and rich heritage. The work brings elegance and refinement to every moment of the brand experience, speaking the language of luxury that can demand a premium wherever it goes.
The design system and guidelines for a coherent brand presence in both digital and physical environments including social media, shops, and merchandise will be accessible for the Engel & Völkers network via the new brand portal designed by Saffron for application in local markets.
Together, we’ve crafted Engel & Völkers’s iconic identity into a digital-first brand experience. It will now perform at the level of the company’s strategic ambition, inspiring experiences that manifest a singular lifestyle.
Gabor Schreier
Chief Creative Officer
