BY Christian Palino

A Bridge to Nowhere

My only interaction with Grubb & Ellis, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate services, took the form of receiving notices about ongoing construction work around the office of the software company I was working for briefly. I knew what they did, given the information they were providing and the fact that their collateral materials communicated “Property Solutions Worldwide”. Certainly the circular icon they were using was rather abstract and nondescript compared to the identifiable bridge in their new mark — although I’m not sure this new icon speaks to what they do. Granted, their offering has diversified through mergers and acquisitions to include management, consulting and investment services, but its unclear how they help one get “From Insights to Results.”

The previous slab serif typography used for their wordmark had some uniqueness to it and was well handled, save the unfortunately integrated ampersand and the careless pairing with that pedestrian, transitional serif typeface. The new typography is clean, corporate, humanist and completely forgettable, a definite lost asset in the battle for visual brand equity. The color palette is certainly not your typical corporate palette and has such great potential to stand out amongst many other large company palettes — as evidenced by the Beeline identity handled by these folks. But given the rest of the brand elements I’m not sure Grubb & Ellis intend to use that unconventional palette in an unconventional way.

Thanks to Andy Van Engen for the tip.

\n\nMy only interaction with Grubb & Ellis, one of the world's largest commercial real estate services, took the form of receiving notices about ongoing construction work around the office of the software company I was working for briefly. I knew what they did, given the information they were providing and the fact that their collateral materials communicated \"Property Solutions Worldwide\". Certainly the circular icon they were using was rather abstract and nondescript compared to the identifiable bridge in their new mark — although I'm not sure this new icon speaks to what they do. Granted, their offering has diversified through mergers and acquisitions to include management, consulting and investment services, but its unclear how they help one get \"From Insights to Results.\"

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners