Cortiam

Promoting An Industry Disruptor

At Beyond Marketing, we champion entrepreneurship and love to cheer on fellow trailblazers – and Cortiam is most definitely blazing a new trail! When the Cortiam founders told us about their mission to establish “a new way to real estate,” we were in!

Team Cortiam had little established by way of marketing assets when we met, giving our team the opportunity to start from an almost-blank slate. Our charge was to:

• Create a logo and brand identity
• Design a super approachable, user-friendly website
• Craft informative, engaging copy

Logo & Brand Identity

Despite residential clients being Cortiam’s primary target market, their initial website and logo depicted a cityscape. The logo text was in all capital letters and the prominent color was a darker orange. It felt formal and corporate; out of alignment with their business model.

With the Cortiam founders wanting a logo and site that felt accessible, welcoming, and “cool,” our design team pitched a variety of options – some more closely aligned with the original brand mark, and some altogether different. Ultimately, Team Cortiam went with one in the latter category:

The new Cortiam logo features overlapping houses, immediately communicating an association with residential real estate. The nexus point of the houses creates a Venn diagram in the shape of an upward-facing arrow, symbolizing collaboration and forward movement.

In contrast to the original, rather austere orange, the new logo features cyan, navy and seafoam. By design, it feels fresh and energizing. The color blue represents stability, wisdom, and reliability; green represents growth, renewal, and optimism – all attributes associated with Cortiam’s mission and brand promise.

The text treatment is now all lowercase, a choice that reinforces approachability and innovation. The sans serif font feels progressive and straightforward – a complement to Cortiam’s pledge of delivering a risk-free, “no catch” service.

Website Design

As a revolutionary service, what Cortiam does, for whom, and how is a lot to explain. The minimal navigation menu is thoughtfully designed to help the user seamlessly negotiate the site: How It Works, Find My Agent, Become An Agent, and About.

True to their “no catch” promise, Cortiam plainly shows how their product works for all parties. Buyers and sellers can see how it works for real estate agents, and vice versa.

The use of color across the site fortifies the brand identity, offers visual appeal, and helps break up blocks of copy. The new logo inspired a number of custom graphics and design elements. The triangular shape formed where the roofs overlap, for example, created an effective transitional element. The subtle pattern of various circle sizes is echoed by the circular photography treatment seen across the website – a dynamic addition to the angular logo.

Copywriting

Acknowledging Cortiam’s position as an industry disruptor, our in-house copywriting team strategically used language that spoke to both the skeptic and the enthusiastic early adopter. Every page is written in plain English in a tone that is professional as well as conversational in order to convey warmth, promote relationship building, and invite engagement.

As always, the initial work of our design team was influential to our copywriting team, and the client-approved copy was instrumental to the final design. In the case of Cortiam, the web copy inspired the use of some unconventional design ideas. As an example, the image of the upside-down homes is a playful nod to Cortiam’s assertion that they are “turning real estate upside down.”

The site copy is fully optimized for Google Search visibility.

Video Production

​​To further promote understanding, Cortiam wisely elected to incorporate a short explainer video on their homepage.

The Beyond Marketing team wrote the script, secured the voice talent, and produced the video. The final result is succinct, on brand, and informative: a highly-effective marketing tool for introducing Cortiam to potential users.

Learn More About: Our Services /  Brand Strategy / Website Design / Digital Marketing