Brand Identity & Art Direction
Elm & Ore: Building a Visual Language for Quiet Luxury
Elm & Ore came to us as a talented studio with no visual identity to match — beautiful rooms, but a brand that undersold every one of them.
Founded by a pair of former architects, Elm & Ore had built a loyal residential clientele almost entirely through referral. The work spoke for itself, but the brand around it — a stock logo, inconsistent fonts, a Pinterest-board Instagram — didn't reflect the precision of their design point of view.
Our brief was to translate their spatial philosophy — restraint, material honesty, and warmth — into a mark, a typographic system, and an art direction language they could carry across every touchpoint, from business cards to job-site signage to full editorial photography.
The Challenge
A visual identity that felt generic and interchangeable with dozens of other interior studios, undermining a genuinely distinct design philosophy and making premium clients hesitate before inquiring.
The Approach
We built the identity from the studio's material palette outward — plaster, white oak, unlacquered brass — translating those textures into a wordmark, a restrained type system, and photography direction.
The Outcome
A cohesive system spanning logo, stationery, signage, and social art direction — one that reads as confident and unmistakably theirs across every application.
Discovery
Reading the Rooms Before Drawing a Single Mark
Before any design work began, we spent two weeks immersed in Elm & Ore's completed projects — photographing texture, cataloguing material choices, and interviewing past clients about how the work made them feel.
The System
A Mark Built on Restraint
The final wordmark draws its proportions from classical architectural lettering, softened just enough to feel residential rather than institutional. Every element of the system had to earn its place.
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Display — Bodoni Moda
Elm & Ore
Text — Inter Light
Designed for rooms that age well, and the people who live in them.
Art Direction
Photography & Motion Guidelines
We paired the identity with a shot-list and lighting philosophy for every future project reveal — natural light only, material details before wide shots, and a consistent color grade across stills and video.
Brand film — "Material First," a 90-second walkthrough of the Hudson Valley flagship project
Applications
From Business Card to Job Site
The system was built to flex across every surface the studio touches — print collateral, packaging for client gifting, and even the signage on active renovation sites.
Letterpress stationery suite
On-site project signage
Client gifting & sample packaging
"They gave us a way to explain, visually, what we'd only ever been able to say in a client meeting. It's the first time our brand has felt as considered as the work itself."Naomi Fenwick, Principal, Elm & Ore Interiors
Results
Six Months Post-Launch
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