A Brand and Website From Nothing

Nothing to Build From

Urban Fabric was a startup in the truest sense: an experienced recruiter breaking off on their own with a name in mind and little else. No brand, no colour palette, no message, no site, just a specialism in property management and surveying and a genuine need to look credible from day one. This wasn't a website project. It was the full package, brand and site, built together from a blank page.

From Brutalist to Balanced

The first direction was brutalist and monochrome, but it didn't capture what Urban Fabric was actually about. The palette that followed did: rich greens for growth, sand tones for the ground it's built on and, read differently, the gold of financial progress. Two typefaces, a bold display face and a clean, functional sans, carried that identity from logo through to UI, and two logo directions went in front of the client before the final mark was refined into shape.

Designed for Two Very Different Users

Candidates needed to feel Urban Fabric could actually support their next move. Clients needed a service that worked without friction. Both had to come through the same site, so the IA, the jobs board and every contact path were built around those two very different jobs to be done, all wrapped in the identity the branding work had just established.

What This Project Showed

This is the project that proved most small businesses don't just want a website, they want the full package: a name that means something, a visual identity to carry it, and a site that makes them look established from day one, not like a business still finding its feet. It went live in 2022 and, as far as I know, hasn't needed to change since.