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Monte Verde: a crest for a villa community near Batumi

Monte Verde is a gated, guarded community of sea-view villas near Batumi, priced from $300,000. I designed its crest, business cards, key fobs and an owners’ gift box, then a landing page with floor plans.

White Monte Verde crest over a garden with a fountain

In 30 seconds

Key point

Buyers of these villas see crests every day: on watches, in hotels, on their university diplomas. So a crest for the community needs no explanation.

Client: Monte Verde, a HORIZON 7 project
Market: luxury country villas in Batumi, many buyers from abroad
Task: show the community’s level at first glance
What I did: crest, items for owners, landing page and its mobile version
Process: studying competitors in Georgia and abroad · studying the buyers' everyday surroundings · the concept was approved the first time

Task

The land was chosen and construction had started, but the project had no logo and no website. The owner described her wish like this: luxurious, “like a separate state with its own crest”.

Render of the Monte Verde villas: facades with wood, stone and terraces

Competitors

I gathered gated communities and villas in Batumi and in the buyers’ home countries. Buyers will compare Monte Verde with what they have seen at home.

Most competitors look the same: gold lettering, waves, palm trees, the word luxury. Faced with a list of visually similar offers, a buyer can easily mix them up. So the category's visual clichés do nothing to set anyone apart.

What competitors repeat

gold type
waves
palms
luxury

Buyers

I looked past age and income at the things buyers see every day. Crests, shields and crowns are almost everywhere.

Where buyers see crests

Watches: Patek Philippe; Rolex
Hotels: The Ritz-Carlton
Universities: University of Oxford; Harvard
Cars: Porsche; Lamborghini
Fashion and champagne: Burberry; Moët & Chandon
Stores: Harrods

Idea

Crests appeared in the 12th century: a knight in a closed helmet was known by his shield. Ever since, a crest says one thing: this person belongs to a certain circle.

Villa buyers already speak this language. So I drew the community a true heraldic crest, not a monogram.

12th centurya sign on a shield to recognize a knight in battle
Centuries latercrests for universities, hotels, watch and car brands
Monte Verdea gated community with its own crest

Concept

One concept, approved at the first showing. Click any part of the crest to see what it is.

The Monte Verde crest: two lions, a shield with the MV monogram, a crown, laurel branches and the HORIZON 7 ribbon

What the crest is made of

Tap a part of the crest

System

The crest works in one color, so it holds up in embossing, on leather and on metal: white on photos, silver on black board.

For owners I made business cards, leather key fobs and a gift box.

Monte Verde business cards with silver embossing on black stone

Leather key fob with the Monte Verde crest

Website

The landing page leads buyers along the same route as a tour of the site:

First screen: the community name across the full width above the villa and three facts: 4-meter ceilings in the kitchen-living room, a heated 20 × 8 m pool, a guarded territory. Two buttons: “Choose a villa” and “Request a call”.
Philosophy and style: why the community is being built and what the homes look like inside: bathroom, kitchen, living room.
Three floors of one villa: a “1 / 2 / 3 floor” switch right on the facade, room labels and a floor plan. Kitchen-living room, guest bathroom with laundry, parking for 2 cars.
Amenities: a 20 × 8 m pool, hammam, gym and sauna, a patio with a grill area, security, a playground and parking.
Questions: payment, management and maintenance, privacy, the Green Cape area, white box finish. Buyers get answers before they call a sales manager.
A three-field form: name, phone, question.

The site is light: white blocks, large type and big villa renders. Only the form and the footer are dark.