Torii

The all-in-one real estate brokerage, combining expertise with breakthrough technology to help you own your perfect home.

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Headquarters

Boston, US

Industry

PropTech

Company size

11 — 50 employees

Funding

$3.2M

Services we provided

Market research
Brand messaging
Visual identity
Brand guidelines
Website design

The client

Torii is the only all-in-one real estate brokerage that combines experienced real estate agents with breakthrough technology to help clients find, buy, and own their perfect home.

Torii streamlines the process of buying real estate by combining the power of automation and machine learning with the personal touch of human customer service. Their intuitive platform allows users to search for a property, make an offer and track their progress from their smartphone.

Their powerful search engine takes you directly to what you’re looking for with the help of AI recommendations. At the same time, their team of real estate experts supports customers from the first apartment search to the day they move in.

Based in California, Torii’s team is proving to be the new standard in real estate.

The challenge

For Torii, the way we buy homes is broken. It’s too expensive, the technology is outdated, and the entire process is fragmented and frustrating. On top of that, millennials now make up the largest share of homebuyers in the United States. But the real estate industry has been asleep for years, refusing to adapt to the needs and expectations of its ancestral clientele.

Our task was to design a visual identity that highlighted Torii’s unique value proposition. We also needed to develop clear messaging that spoke directly to Millennials’ needs.

The solution

After extensive research, workshops, and proposals, we crafted a comprehensive rebrand with a new visual identity and messaging/positioning strategy.

We consolidated Torii’s value proposition in a clear statement to communicate to customers, investors, and the press. We then created brand guidelines that included visual identity best practices, messaging strategy, photography, and illustration guidelines – a comprehensive toolkit to achieve the new goals.

Torii business cards concept by BB Agency

Torii visuals - woman looking at her phone on a colourful background

Torii customer testimonials example shown on a phone screen

Woman looking at her tablet on a colorful background - Torii visuals

Torii design elements concept by BB Agency

An expressive visual evolution.

With Torii, users get a highly personalized search engine that focuses on the key features of their dream home, from lighting and room layouts to hip neighborhoods and local commerce.
The action of personalization, choice, and focus was communicated visually by using large blobs and organic shapes to highlight key areas in images, designs, and maps.

The logo illustrates this approach by showing a simple house symbol with three highlighted areas. These abstract areas could represent key spaces on the client’s property or an aerial view of the neighborhood where exciting moments come together. They can also stand for many other aspects of Torii’s personalized home search.

Other promotional materials adopt this treatment by combining blobs, images, and swirling lines of text in eye-catching ways.

We find similar expressive qualities in Sharp Grotesk, the main typeface. The extended letters, constructed by thick, continuous strokes, lend bold personality to headlines and overall design, reinforcing the authentic yet tactfully irreverent feel of the copy.

We paired Sharp Grotesk with Poppins, a geometric and crisp typeface that softens the character of Sharp Grotesk and makes the text more empathetic and respectful.

In its more essential form, Torii is presented in a range of plum, raisin, and eggshell colors, aiming for a look that balances uniqueness with the trustworthiness expected in the industry. Finally, the expressive version combines a variety of warm natural tones to create color spaces that feel vibrant and cozy – just like our living spaces.

Taken together, the elements of this new identity make Torii a true leader in the industry.

Torii design by BB Agency on various phone screens

We had an incredibly positive experience working with BB Agency for our company rebrand. Their approach was thoughtful and sophisticated from start to finish and they were clearly passionate about what we’re building. The BB team was always prompt for meetings and deliverables, while remaining agile to accommodate schedule shifts and additional revisions. The discovery phase allowed us to do a deep-dive on our messaging, positioning, and narrative, which has helped us across product, marketing, and internal alignment. The results speak for themselves – our customers and team love the new look and feel of the brand.

Zach Gorman Co-founder and COO at Torii

The result.

After three months of collaboration, the Torii team successfully integrated our messaging and visual identity guidelines across all touchpoints, including social media, websites, products, and general customer communications. The Torii team embraced the new visual identity and language, fully adopting the playful and expressive design language.

Visit Torii

Branding

Market research
Visual identity development
Tone of voice
Messaging guidelines
Brand guidelines
Website design language

What’s next?

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Building the world’s best home buying experience.