Description:

‘In a market that is loud,
we chose to be quiet.’

Property marketing is notorious for its noise. Overflowing with clutter and confusion. Claim and counterclaim. Bravado and bluster.

Yet the new Fortis brand is purposefully quiet. Launched in mid-2020 as a haven of calm in an industry known for chaos, it presents an elegantly understated and deeply personal tone, providing breathing space for conversation, consideration and reflection.

While the new brand touches every corner of the customer experience, one of the most strategically pivotal elements for the Fortis business was a bespoke 120-page hardcover portfolio piece. It was created as a beautiful visual showcase – not simply of what Fortis does as a developer of boutique residential properties but, perhaps far more importantly, of how Fortis thinks.

It tells the story. It sets the tone. It shapes the expectation of everything to follow.

At a time when the new Fortis brand identity was still being established within the property market, the portfolio piece provided a tactile opportunity to demonstrate everything the new brand represented. Relationship built, detail driven, community inspired, and exuding a quiet yet endearing confidence. It was meticulously created to be simple, accessible and refreshingly human from cover to cover.

Creatively, the visual treatment boasts little colour, a solitary font and minimal use of graphics – the ultimate in simplicity, present yet quiet – with a generous use of white space grounded by subtle branding. Splashes of colour that do appear are delivered through the use of authentic, human-centred photography and clean, aspirational renders. The considered and methodical structure of the Fortis development process is also represented visually through a strong design grid, carefully crafted layouts and technical diagrams featuring clean linework.

The design of the portfolio piece – and the messages within it – is endlessly versatile, something that allows it to serve many functions within the Fortis business. Its uses have already included onboarding new Fortis staff, creative partner introductions (i.e. architects, interior designers and landscape architects) and, of course, lead generation initiatives for upcoming Fortis developments on the inner-city fringes of both Sydney and Melbourne.

To ensure a seamless buyer experience, future Fortis development brochures are now also aligned to follow the same format as the portfolio piece. This means potential customers can receive them as a perfectly-matched pair – a brochure that talks to a specific residential project, and the Fortis portfolio piece that showcases the people behind it.

Since first conceived in mid-2020, the portfolio piece has proven so successful it has already seen several reprints to keep up with demand from the Fortis sales team. Human at every level, it presents Fortis as the very antithesis of traditional property marketing.

Shouting so much less. Yet saying so much more.