Maniac

Citizen

  • Identity
  • Messaging
  • Photo + Video
  • Web
  • Placemaking

Citizen is a boutique apartment building offering luxury living on the Eastside Trail of Atlanta’s popular BeltLine.

Our scope included market research, asset naming, and a full brand package, as well as media production, web presence, and launch campaign management.

Included

  • Identity
  • Messaging
  • Photo + Video
  • Web
  • Placemaking
Citizen brochure pages on a pale blue background; the center page shows a man at a balcony railing above the city with the line Your city. Your zen.

Identity

Our brand package included a keystone handbook based on market research, asset naming, and a comprehensive visual design system for use in signage, collateral, web, etc.

We recommended the name Citizen to honor and elevate the neighborhood’s industrial history, while also evoking a sense of hometown pride. The approved mark, ostensibly a C monogram, pays homage to the rails of Atlanta’s electric streetcars, which made their 1889 debut in nearby Inman Park.

Citizen brand handbook spreads: a Meet me at Citizen postcard in gold script, a six-color palette, a green page with the C logo mark and a photo of friends talking at a table.

Messaging

The market research our team conducted also heavily influenced our language. We chose words to resonate with audience values and to reinforce an aspirational lifestyle of success, ease, relevance, etc.

Having locked down on a voice, we then conducted prelim. testing via social ads to determine which pieces of copy maximized conversion. The resulting insights informed adjustments that we made prior to conducting a full launch campaign.

Photo + Video

Once the building was completed, furnished and ready for cameras, we produced and shot an archive of evergreen media.

Our shoot lasted 2 days, involved 5 models, and yielded a brand video, a series of 15 sec and 30 sec social ads, images for placement on web and in brochures, and more.

Citizen signage handbook spreads with an illuminated Citizen sign over the building entrance, a vertical blade sign and a glowing C logo mark.

Placemaking

We gave special focus to placemaking moments throughout the campus, seeking to convey a sense of relaxed design cohesion and respect for the neighborhood’s past.

For example, we included a quote by Atlanta poet W. E. B. Du Bois, stenciled onto the risers of the steps leading up to the entrance.

Illustrated Citizen neighborhood map along the Atlanta Beltline, marking Krog Street Market, Atlanta Stove Works and Studioplex on Auburn, with a numbered list of nearby shops and restaurants.

Web

Our team built a robust web presence using no-code tech to promote both client empowerment and fully bespoke design.

In the commercial housing space, much of web is based on templated designs, many of which feel mainly the same. Against that backdrop, we built a clean, disruptive presence free of noisy popups that landed a flawless score on Google Lighthouse and reinforced our promise of easy breezy, sophisticated living for sophisticated residents.

You may also be interested in