By the time we were putting pen to paper to craft Cadence’s new identity, a few core ideas had floated to the top: 

1. Cadence’s brand system should be capable of expanding and contracting across their evolving portfolio of properties and investment funds.

2. There was more inspiration to be taken from global tech organisations than fellow property businesses.

3. The role of slick, high quality visual imagery (photography, renders) would be just as critical to the repositioning as the design assets themselves.

We stripped much from the communication style that had become dominant through Cadence’s ten year history, replacing it with a refined and elegant look and feel. Our tone of voice became more straight talking, employing commonspeak instead of industry jargon – after all, the best in show don’t need to hide behind big words. The Cadence yellow was dropped in favour of a warmer, brighter orange and secondary colours took a back seat in the brand in a move that highlighted the confidence of the organisation. 

Type has such a big impact on a brand and we knew it would tell so much of the Cadence story. When you want precise decision systems to marry with human elegance you turn to the Swiss, and Optimo – one of our favourite Swiss foundries – had exactly what we needed in Px Grotesk, a modern, tech-inspired typeface that has elevated the brand across both digital and print uses. 

We briefed and commissioned legendary architectural photographer Peter Clarke to document three Cadence property projects that would set the tone for all future development photography, before setting our scopes a little closer to home – the Cadence HQ in Hawthorn East. Here, we worked with acclaimed portrait photographer Melissa Cowan to profile the Cadence team, putting a face to more than just the Executive Team, and documenting the more subtle moments around their office.

In just a few short months since launching the brand, Cadence have continued to grow their operations, backed by a renewed way of framing up their business.