Bristol design studio Taxi has created a new brand identity for estate agency chain Ocean as it prepares to expand beyond the city.
Ocean, which now has eight branches in Bristol, was launched in 1983. It quickly established itself as an agency with customer service at its heart and was voted one of the UK’s most-respected agencies by The Times and Sunday Times newspapers.
However, it felt that its existing identity felt “cold and corporate” and did little to communicate the vibrancy of the business and its people while its range of services were visually disparate and lacked branded standout. 
Taxi’s brief was to sensitively move the brand identity on, making it more modern, and create a cohesive design system to accommodate Ocean’s expanding range of services and ambitions for growth.
The result is an “iconising” the ‘O’ of Ocean, said Taxi, and interpreting it as a locating pin to provide the business with a relevant, contemporary identity system and campaign material that not only underpins Ocean’s expert local knowledge.
It also has just the right amount of wit to reflect the agency’s culture, said Taxi.
To top the identity off, Taxi devised a dual-meaning strapline ‘The Place For You’ that asserts Ocean as being the right choice for homebuyers, vendors and renters.
Taxi director Olly Guise said Ocean managing director Paul Harris was “not your stereotypical estate agency type”.
“Self-effacing, witty, diplomatic, compassionate and big-hearted, Paul is very much the figurehead of the operation and is supported by a very talented, very customer-focused team,” he said.
“Ocean is fully aware that buying and selling homes, even renting them, is a stressful business for people. They strive to minimise this hassle, adding oodles of customer service and attention to detail that makes the whole process much easier… they essentially put people before profits!
“This inspired us and motivated us in equal measure… our job was to reflect both Paul and his team’s approach in the new identity system and communications, which meant adding in warmth, wit and humility.”
Paul Harris added: “Taxi Studio provided sound strategic advice through a series of thought-provoking workshops to build a greater understanding of the core principles of Ocean. They’ve been great fun to work with and have demonstrated exceptional creativity in delivering a brilliant evolution of our brand that really delivers on the principles on which Ocean was founded.”
