Branding New Housing Experiences: How to Make 3D-Printed Concrete Housing Appealing in Detroit View Digital Media

Innovation Showcase
Meaghan Barry,  Lilian Crum  

In 2020 our branding firm, Unsold Studio, was hired to brand two partner companies – ModPublic (for-profit) and Citizen Robotics (non-profit) – that aim to create affordable housing in Detroit, MI, USA using new building technologies, including 3D concrete printing methods. In the region, the technology is unfamiliar in the built environment, and our goal was to effectively communicate its benefits to future dwellers, as well as partners, builders, and funders for both organizations. ModPublic “actively breaks down the financial barriers to homeownership” by “lowering construction costs through digital manufacturing and robotic construction.” For their organization, the brand design had to challenge traditional notions of housing, while remaining familiar to potential home-owners. It also could not feel authoritative or like an outsider coming in to solve problems within Detroit neighborhoods, but rather needed to communicate its inclusive model. Meanwhile, their non-profit partner Citizen Robotics “seeks to reduce the cost of housing construction through the adoption of robotic construction techniques.” Through their “training center, they bring these technologies to the community so they can learn to build more effectively – using less labor and less material.” For Citizen Robotics, the brand design had to demonstrate their expertise and knowledge about robotics, but also be approachable and understandable for robotics newbies and to build trust with the traditional construction workforce they aim to up-skill. Using the brands designed for ModPublic and Citizen Robotics as case studies, we demonstrate how to make new environments approachable to a variety of audiences.