Ryan Hartt Real Estate
Overview
Ryan Hartt is a top 10% Vancouver real estate agent who needed branding to match his performance. In 2022, he came to me for a complete brand overhaul—logo variations, color palette, typography, guidelines, the full package.
The challenge was creating something that felt both professional and approachable, which is exactly Ryan's selling style. He loved the final brand so much he immediately started putting it on everything from business cards to park bench ads across Metro Vancouver.
Objective
Create a brand that captures Ryan's personality—professional but approachable, successful but not stuffy—while making sure it doesn't get lost in Vancouver's sea of generic real estate branding.
The brand had to work everywhere: social media, business cards, yard signs, email signatures, and whatever else Ryan might dream up. Flexibility was key since successful realtors tend to be everywhere at once.
Key results
Research
I started by getting inside Ryan's head—what did he love, who were his ideal clients? He gravitates toward clean, modern design but still needs to appeal to traditional home buyers who expect a certain level of established credibility. Then I dove into what other top Vancouver agents were doing. The research showed me exactly where the opportunities were—while everyone else was leaning into heavy, traditional looks, I could position Ryan with something cleaner and more modern.
Ideation
I went through several of iterations trying to capture Ryan's visual identity—professional but not stiff, successful but approachable. The logo had to work everywhere from tiny Instagram profile pics to massive yard signs, which meant thinking about scalability from day one. I ended up creating multiple logo variations so Ryan could pick the right version for each situation. Full logo for business cards, simplified mark for social media, horizontal version for email signatures—basically covering every scenario a busy realtor might need.
Challenges
- The biggest challenge was threading the needle between "successful agent" and "approachable guy you'd actually want to work with." Too corporate and Ryan disappears into the crowd of stuffy realtors. Too casual and potential clients might question his credibility.
- Creating a brand identity that could speak to nervous first-time homebuyers or seasoned luxury investors without alienating anyone.
Final results
Ryan immediately started rolling out the brand everywhere—jackets, shirts, park bench ads, yard signs all over Metro Vancouver.
This project still ranks as one of my favorites because everything clicked. The brand perfectly captured Ryan's personality while giving him the professional credibility he needed to compete at the top level of Vancouver real estate.
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