QUARTO CREATIVE
The Residential Specialist
The Residential Specialist, or TRS, has been the member publication of the Residential Real Estate Council (RREC) for decades. Its members, Certified Residential Specialists, sit at the top of the pyramid of REALTORS®, having achieved a special designation through the association.
We found that the existing magazine had missed two significant opportunities: the establishment of a strong branding voice and thorough exploitation of the vast amount of data available through CRS’ affiliate, the National Association of REALTORS®. The former we tackled with a revised department structure and rationale; the latter would end up being solved typographically.
Throughout our discovery process, we looked for a “hook”— some kind of visual element that would help brand the magazine and, at the same time, allude to our constituency and the subject matter. We wanted to avoid using the standard five-sided house shape:
We finally settled on the window. It’s a simple, easily scalable feature of every dwelling, and by including the window slats, we felt that we could make it clear that our focus would be residential (as opposed to commercial) real estate. Ultimately, it was incorporated into the department treatments, with variations for the front of book, feature well and back of book sections:
We went through several cover branding treatments, building on the design themes we were developing for the magazine interior. Here’s a smattering of the designs we developed:
Meanwhile, we were experimenting with type treatments for the magazine interior, with an emphasis on typefaces that would lend weight to the higher volume of data we hoped to incorporate. In researching typefaces, we stumbled across Normande:
In this iteration, the branding slides up and down the cover, depending upon the content of the cover image. This unconventional device provided the appropriate weight for the brand but also pointed us toward a more free-spirited approach to the interior content.
In the news section above, you can see how we integrated numbers and charts into the layouts, providing saturated shots of black ink that do double-duty as access points.
This feature layout demonstrates the conceptual approach we developed to animate conventional real estate topics, such as multi-family dwellings.
Since redesigning, The Residential Specialist has been honored with Apex, Hermes Creative and Excel Awards for its design and layout. It consistently ranks among the top RREC member benefits in reader surveys.
In the news section above, you can see how we integrated numbers and charts into the layouts, providing saturated shots of black ink that do double-duty as access points.