CBRE
DURATION
JANUARY 2020
ASK
CAMPAIGN
WEB DESIGN
ROLE
SENIOR DESIGNER
AGENCY
DROGA5
Our first ever project with CBRE as an agency was an incredibly quick ask to design a site/landing page of their upcoming 2030 Commercial Real Estate trends report. We saw this as an opportunity to create something that helped elevate CBRE’s visual and narrative aesthetic, especially in comparison to their competiton.
While official release of the site has been suspended due to the ramifications of a post-pandemic work environment, we genuinely feel we delivered a site that honors and elevates the report.
As the sole designer on this project, I was in charge of providing the entire visual direction of both the site, but also the campaign work that would be derived from it. Overall, it was a process I had to own from beginning to end, regularly interfacing with client stakeholders and their internal design teams.
THE BRIEF
CBRE expressed their desire to digitize their 2030 trends report, which they were still working on in-house. We wanted to take it to a place that was inspired by other online trend reports that had bespoke animation and page design. The site, once approved, was to immediately be passed off for development.
Work-in-progress report pages from clients
After receiving sample pages of the report from the client. we wanted to make sure that we can independantly work on our own vision on how this report would materialize, especially with the kinds of opportunities that come with a landing page execution.
DESIGN
ELEMENTS
Before we started with any work, we took inventory of all the colors, fonts and visual devices that CBRE employed throughout the report. We felt these were enough for us to start envisioning another look and feel for us to riff off.
ELEVATING
VISUALS
This was our first step working with CBRE, so we wanted to place our footing into the right direction. My first inclination was to define some high level ways of elevating what their internal teams have started in their report. This came in the form of three moodboards that helped pivot the visuals.
MAIN
CHALLENGES
LIGHTNING TIMELINE
I was briefed on this site 2 days before our first meeting with the CMO of CBRE. Since this was also the first piece of work the clients will see from Droga5, there was immense pressure to deliver and have an approach that is robust, fresh and sets the bar high.
LIMITED CONTENT
While the clients did share some pages of the report, the majority of the content was still being written and the structure somewhat subject to change. Throughout the design sprint, the site needed to be able to accomodate possible variances in content that we anticipate. We also internally felt we did not need to be beholden entirely to the look and feel of their report at the time.
FIRST PASS
This is the iteration first shown to the CMO. Fortunately we received enthusiastic approval and moved forwards with this approach, working closely with the internal CBRE design teams to match our visuals. Overall, they were excited about our elevated take on their report.
We also planned some scrolling animations and mouse tracking effects to lean further into our vision for this site. We felt it would be best to showcase as much as possible early on in the process so the developers can scope accordingly.
FINAL
OUTCOME
After finalizing all the content, which includes imagery, copy and structure, we also made updates to the color palettes to better accommodate for ADA compliance and shifted. This is what we ultimately passed off to the client for their dev teams to implement.
PROJECT
TAKEAWAYS
While this project was a fast and furious turnaround, it helped open a converstation with client to see if there was an opportunity to redesign their website. This site required very close collaboration with the clients, especially as it was an elevated visual departure from where they started.
CREDITS
LEADERSHIP
Jason Severs, Craig Wong
VISUAL DESIGN
Albie Eloy
ACCOUNT
Cara Roberts, Frank Renwick
Although the site has not been publicly advertised, likely because of the sudden shift in our daily work practices that occured in the middle of 2020, this first project with CBRE was a personal accomplishment.
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