A New Generation of Real Estate Creative Consultants
Call them a Fractional Brand Director, Product Strategist, or a Creative Owner's Rep — a new approach is emerging in the industry.
A new generation of creative consultants has been setting up shop to go far beyond slapping a logo onto a building. Their ambition is to play an integral role in defining a development’s strategy and help the owners coordinate the creative direction from a project’s inception all the way to its operations.
For this report, I’ve spoken with the founders of three new creative consultancies focusing on the built environment: Roy Alpert of Favorite Field, Karen Zabarsky Blashek of Ground Up, and Kuba Snopek of Direction.
Favorite Field is a creative collaborative for the built world. Their process revolves around three core services: brand strategy, identity creation, and brand and experience integration. The team is focused on projects that simultaneously foster connections between people, value aesthetics and beauty, and thrive in the tangible space.
Ground Up is a multidisciplinary studio providing end-to-end creative for the built environment. In particular, they specialize in real estate strategy, design, and branding. The Ground Up team is on a mission to create narrative-driven, community-loved projects.
Direction is an interdisciplinary team of urban-, product-, service-, and digital designers specializing in designing experiences, destinations, and branding for real estate and urban projects. Their services for developers and property owners encompass high-level property concepts, customer needs analysis, design briefs, place branding, and distinctive selling point creation.
In the chapters below we’ll explore:
What do these practices do?
What’s novel in their approach?
Why were these firms founded within the last couple of years?
A few remarks before we dive in:
All of these organizations work with a wide range of clients: cities, restaurants, retailers, hospitality operators, offices, proptech companies, etc. For the purposes of this newsletter, we’ll explore their value proposition for real estate developers.
Each of these collectives has their unique strengths. For example, Favorite Field are experts in hospitality, GroundUp can lead architectural design in-house, and Direction are specializing in urban storytelling and digital product design. For this report, we’ll focus primarily on their common traits and shared approaches.
Finally, there are a few other relevant examples of creative studios with expertise in real estate strategy, such as:
Although I haven’t interviewed them in time to include in this report, I believe that most of the principles discussed below would apply to them as well.
What Do They Do?
In “LVMH of Real Estate”, we wrote about the Creative Director and Product Director roles in real estate companies. The emerging practices we’re covering today are providing a similar service. However, instead of being employed in-house, they help clients on a per-project basis as external consultants.
While these creative studios use different terms to describe their approach, and there’re indeed differences in their methods, we can identify four common offerings. First, they define a concept and initial story for a development project. Second, they design the brand, digital, and physical identity. Third, they integrate the brand into the physical space operations after a project is launched. On top of that, the consultants can assist clients in coordinating the creative process end-to-end on their behalf.
Strategy and Narrative. Creative consultants help clients with research and definition of a clear and concise project narrative that can help guide decisions throughout design, construction, and operations. They may influence many core real estate decisions, including target audience, program, and amenities. They translate a dry market research into a clear and empathetic brand story. This stage may be described with terms like “brand strategy”, “product narrative”, and “creative vision”.
Hands-on Design. Creative collectives hold various skills and expertise in-house where they can design a brand identity, design system, digital assets, and even interiors by themselves. This aspect of their work overlaps with the scope of traditional branding or creative agencies.
Brand Integration and Activations. These consultants are involved in integrating the brand narrative through every step of the project including the post-launch operations and brand activations.
Creative Owner Representation. In addition, or as a substitute, to their in-house design services, these consultancies play an obscure coordinating role. They help clients create detailed briefs (architecture brief, marketing or PR brief, web design brief, etc) for other creatives and act on their behalf in bidding out and arranging the design work. The service substitutes the need for a full-time creative role on developer’s payroll and thus can be called: “fractional brand direction”, “fractional product direction”, or “creative owner’s representation”.
What’s novel in their approach?
The emerging real estate creative consultants are neither the first nor the only ones helping clients with branding built environments. Their competitors may be traditional branding agencies or even 3D visualization firms who have expanded to provide branding and web design.
On the surface, the new generation of creative consultants may look alike. They often produce similar deliverables like identity design, web assets, and sometimes architecutral renders. And yet, there are some profound differences in their approach:
They influence a project's strategy and narrative from its inception.
They know how the real estate works.
They get to know the end-users.
They help owners to coordinate the creative process on their behalf.
Let’s explore each of these unique aspects individually.
They influence strategy and narrative
The emerging creative consultancies aspire to help their clients craft a narrative that defines the very essence of a development project. It can be a narrative for a city, a narrative for a building, a narrative for service in a building, etc.
Outside of the hospitality industry, traditional branding and creative agencies typically have little to no impact on real estate strategy. They have to adapt and work after the project had been largely defined by developers. By contrast, for the new generation of creative consultants, being able to contribute to the development strategy, program, and narrative is an essential part of their process and value proposition.
As Karen puts it: “Marriott requires branding to be done before the interior design can even begin. This approach is specific to a certain level of hospitality, but it could and should become the standard for other product types in the built environment. I would never just design a logo or a website unless strategy is included in the scope”.
Achieving a shared development narrative is much trickier than it sounds. A sophisticated architectural design may not satisfy a developer if it doesn’t optimize for a developer’s business model. An exquisite visual identity may feel out of place if it doesn’t consider physical integration or leasing process.
Developers have to cater to multiple audiences and balance conflicting objectives: meet the financial targets of investors and lenders, please the end-users, and balance designer aspirations with compliance requirements. The promise of the new generation of creative consultancies is to help owners facilitate a balance of real estate business objectives with spatial poetry.
Having a concise positioning strategy and creative brief from the very beginning has a very practical business value. A clear vision for a project allows the team to make faster and better informed decisions throughout the lifespan of a project. It makes the design process more streamlined and the end-product more coherent.
Roy echoes this sentiment: “At our core, we strive to unify the conceptual and strategic phases, orchestrating the creative process both internally and with all partners involved in a project. This is achieved through the formulation of a compelling narrative serving as a cornerstone for collaboration, ensuring that every team member, regardless of their specific role, shares a common understanding and common vision. If there's no clear story, we're probably not the best fit for that client, we really want to find that bigger story and make it real, so everyone involved can connect with it.”
Finally, a well crafted strategy may help differentiate a project in the market without making it more expensive. As Kuba explains: “It's sometimes possible to make a splash with expensive architecture, but it also can be done very cheaply. For example, there’s a building designed by OMA in Williamsburg. It’s very attractive from far away, but as you approach it — the lobby is pretty bland. At the same time, there’s a nearby development in Greenpoint that has absolutely generic architecture, but its small lobby is very thoughtfully designed as an intimate library for the residents and their guests. It's an amazingly memorable space that didn't cost much, but required a deliberate narrative and positioning.”
They know how the real estate works
For a client to rely on a creative consultant’s guidance in crafting a development project’s strategy beyond superficial visuals, they must trust their knowledge of the real estate development business. In particular, financial underwriting, building codes and permitting, community engagement and government relations, nascent competitive business models, and the tastes of increasingly discerning audience.
The new creative firms are unique in the market, in part, because they are led by principles with hands-on experience in crafting real estate projects across different scales:
Prior to founding Favorite Field, Roy was a director at Sydell Group and led the conception, branding, launch, marketing, and growth of Freehand Hotels. Roy later started his own private equity practice where he partnered with prominent figures in real estate and hospitality to reposition underperforming properties (for example, joint ventures with Highgate Hotels and The Fishtown Collective Company). From these experiences, he saw a growing demand for a holistic creative strategy and branding service focused on tangible experiences: “our goal was to create an offering that functioned as an extension of the clients in-house development team, aligning with the unique demands and timelines of real estate ventures. Given that a project might span over five years, we designed our services to provide sustained support throughout the entire lifecycle of a development, from initial conception to beyond the launch phase.”
Karen of Ground Up, trained in architecture and urban design, was the first creative hire at Kushner, one of the leading NYC-based developers. Over her seven year tenure in the company, she was promoted to a unique role overseeing end-to-end creative direction of all the firm's projects. As Karen puts it: “A big part of my value proposition is my experience in real estate and seeing projects through. At Kushner, I had this unbelievable position of being able to contribute to the creative vision of a project from the underwriting to the last throw pillow that went on the couch before we opened our doors”. Now, Karen brings her experience at an institutional development company to a wide range of consulting projects across North America: from a massive tech center in New Mexico, to a residential tower in Canada, to a non-profit innovation hub in Harlem.
Kuba of Direction is an urban researcher, designer, and internationally renowned author. He collaborated with Bjarke Ingels and Rem Koolhaas. Kuba was a co-founder and program director at Kharkiv School of Architecture in Ukraine. More recently, he wrote a graduate thesis at UC Berkeley on alternative models for investing in and supporting art within new real estate development projects. Since co-founding Direction, he helped craft new strategies and storytelling not just for buildings, but cities. A big focus of their practice is helping owners better understand the end-users of their build environment: “whenever a developer starts a project, they should be thinking about the sales process early on, even if it's really far away in terms of time. The objective is to create something that is formulated for a very specific audience and also differentiates itself from the other products on the market. It has to have its own story.“
They get to know the end-users
Market statistics may not always be enough to create a compelling and successful real estate product. It requires a profound empathy with customer’s needs and feelings. Developers need to be good at many things: deal-making, fundraising, construction management, public relations, and asset management to name a few. Empathizing with various end-users may not be the strong suit for every developer. Creative consultancies aspire to help fill that gap by conducting user research, getting to know local community, and bringing a human touch to raw market data.
For example, it’s one thing to know that there’s a growing demand for student housing. It’s a very different skillset to be able to craft a place these students would passionately love. Creative consultancies can help developers imagine ideal student housing. The interior design and a selection of services that can make them feel at home. The design of amenities and an event program that can foster new friendships and enhance the ability to learn. Last but not least, all these elements, together with a name and identity that makes them feel cool amongst peers. Turning a student housing project into such a desired place to live cannot be achieved with merely architectural design. However, if successful, it will inevitably lead to higher rents, better retention, and building a long-term reputation.
The new generation of creative consultancies make user research an integral part of their process. For example, when Karen starts a project, she spends a long time with the local community to better understand who the project is for: ”I always kick off strategy, design, or branding projects with a deep dive site immersion. This entails several days on site, getting to know the property, surrounding area, local culture, and competition. I also spend that time talking with locals, getting to know the neighborhood and city like I'm getting to know a friend. Taking the time to experience this immersion results in a much richer, more meaningful design or brand that stands the test of time and is authentic to the site.“
The stakes of this research are high. The ability of a developer to cater to the needs, aspirations, and preferences of the end consumer can make or break a project. The better they understand the end users — the better they can attract more visitors, increase their retention and word-of-mouth. This, in turn, makes the property more attractive for the tenants – the owner can get the most reliable tenants on the market and increase the overall value of the property.
Consider another seemingly simple case. A developer may know that they want to incorporate a public open space in their project, but how can they decide whether it should be a communal garden, a padel court, or a dog relief area?
Getting to know the end-users and the history of the community can help create very specific recommendations. According to Kuba: “everyone understands that today complementing a design with a nicely designed green space is a must. But what is this green space specifically? Depending on our research, we have advised our clients to create an elegant bosquet, a micro sports ground for the local with discreet amenities and events, and even a thematic botanical garden, where plants are supplemented with educational narratives for children. Each of these decisions made the project's green area tailored for the needs of a specific group of users, and made it stand out from other green areas in the neighborhood.”
Finally, in many cases, the project can be complimented with time-tested user-centric design principles. Kuba argues that: “There is a huge amount of knowledge about how cities work, what people like about them, and what people dislike about them. I have heard so many times from my real estate development friends that they can't tell with certainty whether people would love a project or not. That’s wrong, you can tell. There are very specific things that people value about culture, experiences, and design details. We can design for that.”
They coordinate creative process on the owner’s behalf
In addition to their in-house research and design services, the emerging consultants often undertake an influential behind-the-scenes role. They help clients create detailed briefs (architecture brief, marketing or PR brief, web design brief, etc) for other creative subcontractors and act on owner’s behalf in bidding out and directing their work. Roy explains the relative novelty of this service in the real estate context:
“Branding services are more holistic in the realms of startups, technology, or consumer packaged goods, where a branding agency often plays a crucial role in delivering a cohesive product experience. This includes a blend of product design, packaging, brand identity, and messaging. However, from my experience in the built world, this process can be a bit disjointed. It's common to encounter various consultants each handling distinct aspects (such as identity, design, and food beverage conception/partnerships, retail curation, etc.) that may not seamlessly integrate their identities or visions.”
I find this to be one the most intriguing and, at the same time, the least understood offering of these firms. We’re used to branding and design agencies who are doing most of the creative work in-house. And we’re used to developers being the ones who orchestrate various creative subcontractors in a project. The concept of an external consultant taking on a big chunk of developer’s coordination responsibilities while not doing the design work hands-on is not trivial.
We can compare that service to that of an owner’s representative (rep). Typically, an owner can hire an external professional to act in their interest and on their behalf in coordinating with other subcontractors. However, owner’s reps commonly focus on controlling the budget and project management. And even when they oversee architectural design, they almost never touch branding, marketing, or other creative aspects of a project.
Given the exclusively creative focus of the role, I suggest that we can refer to it as a “Creative Owner’s Rep”.
Why now?
All of the firms featured in this report were founded within the last couple of years: Favorite Field in 2023, Direction and GroundUP in 2022. Which begs a question: why now, all of a sudden?
I believe that this is a natural outcome of two factors: first, more developers are realizing the importance of brand and creative direction for attracting modern customers; second, more developers are finally acknowledging their relative weaknesses and are seeking outside help with directing the creative process.
It had been possible for real estate developers and operators to get away with subpar products and lack of any creative direction. In part, because customers had limited alternatives or had seen fewer examples of quality products.
Over the last decade, the customers' expectations have been rapidly changing towards better experiential offerings instead of merely utilitarian ones.
The success of hospitality industry in attract and retaining more experientially-oriented customers has inspired developers in other asset classes to take note. Similarly, venture-backed real estate startups have brought over product management and branding playbooks from tech and consumer products into the real estate industry. Regardless of underlying venture capital returns, these experiments proved that consumers gravitate towards thoughtfully crafted real estate brands and products. Now that real estate is becoming more experiential, real estate owners need to think about a building as a brand to remain competitive in the market.
Large organizations started to adapt to the new environment and customer expectations by hiring creatives in-house. This is also how Roy and Karen got their in-house experiences in brand leadership. At the time when Karen joined Kusher, the job was described to her as: “we want someone to make our projects look beautiful”. The company didn't even have a name for that role. They just wanted someone that makes the physical spaces look good. Make the marketing materials look good. Make everything look good.
A decade later, it’s increasingly common to find real estate development companies employing Brand Directors, Product Directors, and Creative Directors. For example, Daniel Glaessl, Chief Product Officer at Neutral; Greg Fong, Head of Brand at Samara; Michaela Solar-March, Chief Marketing Officer at TwoTrees; Roger Black, Creative Director at Ballymore; Pascal Duval, VP of Brand at Numa, and many others.
However, for smaller real estate organizations, hiring a full-time creative team may not be economically feasible. It stimulates the demand for consultants who can provide product and brand direction services on a per-project or part-time basis. Roy explain the insight that led to creation of their practice:
“Real Estate is evolving into a consumer-centric product. Buildings are not just structures; they are brands. However, developers often lack the comprehensive teams—comprising brand strategists, digital experts, and marketers—that other consumer-facing products benefit from. There's a critical need for someone to help orchestrate the brand's creation, pinpoint the ideal retail partners, and weave a unified narrative that aligns with the interior design team's vision. For entities where having such expertise in-house isn't feasible, we step in as the equivalent of a Fractional Chief Brand Officer, offering our specialized skills to fill this gap”.
What’s the catch?
One of the challenges for market adoption of services like brand strategy and creative owner’s representation is that they add additional upfront costs for a developer. It’s always a difficult pitch to promise savings and process efficiencies downstream.
In order to make the offering better tailored for the long-term nature of real estate projects the companies may need to experiment with ways to reduce upfront cash burden for their clients. For example, Favorite Field is relying on long-term subscription-like engagement: “we do a retainer throughout the whole project that can be paused, it's a smaller fee distributed around a longer process instead of a large upfront fee that is typical for traditional branding agencies”.
Another challenge is that the developers who need the most help with creative direction — are often the most oblivious to it. It’s still difficult to explain to some why the creative strategy and coordination services are so valuable, and why it may not be enough to hire a random freelancer off Upwork to get compelling results.
Yet, there are many reasons to be optimistic. The market for creative consulting is poised to expand for years to come. The need to create better built environments is boundless. And in a high-interest environment, the competition on quality starts to matter more, as well as search for affordable yet effective strategies to keep rents and occupancy high.
We simply need to keep in mind that the adoption of new creative methods, just like everything in real estate, would require patience and perseverance. And these folks know it, better than most.
— Fed
P.S. If you happen to know of other relevant real estate consultancies, feel free to leave a comment below or message me on substack:
Relevant Reading
“What “Branding” Means for Twenty-First Century Real Estate” by Karen Zabarsky Blashek for Thesis Driven
Interesting piece. As a former designer in the field of architecture I’ve now carved out a creative role for a development firm. It’s been much more interesting and flexible than working in a traditional architecture office. I feel much of what you’re writing here also corresponds with the field of architectures failures in licensing and training. I do hope a new iteration can come out of both fields to make them stronger. Look forward to connecting on your pieces more!