Prestige student accommodation without the premium price
APB Property is a family-run business providing quality student accommodation across Liverpool and Manchester. Catering for individuals and groups of between four and ten people, APB has built a reputation for providing well-managed, affordable accommodation for students who want something a little better. Premium, but without the pricetag.

A brand with nowhere to hide
APB had been operating in the student property market for a number of years, but its brand had never really caught up with the business. There were leaflets, stationery and a website, but each had developed its own look and feel, with multiple versions of the logo being used along the way. There was no shortage of communication, but there was no real brand behind it.

APB wanted to present itself as the professional student accommodation expert it had become. In particular, there was a need to establish a proper corporate typeface that could work consistently across everything from the website and advertising to tenancy agreements and company documentation. The brand needed to be as comfortable on a billboard as it was on a contract.

The existing green was important to APB and had been part of the business since the beginning, but everything else was open to interpretation. Rather than simply tidy up what was already there, we felt this was an opportunity to start again and create a brand that properly reflected the business and its increasingly savvy student audience.

A fresh start
We began with a full analysis of the existing APB brand and quickly established that the business had outgrown what was there. The various house-based logos were functional enough, but ultimately generic and lacking any real distinction. Likewise, the advertising style felt too erratic and informal for a business that had established itself as a professional operator in the student property market.

Our recommendation was clear: evolution wasn't enough. APB needed a revolution.

We retained the APB Property name but developed a completely new identity around it. Three distinct creative routes were presented, with the chosen direction centred around a modern, adaptable wordmark paired with bold, dynamic typography. The familiar green was retained, but given a fresher, more engaging hue that worked particularly well across digital applications. The colour palette was deliberately stripped back to green, black and white, creating a cleaner and more professional visual language.

Typography became a particularly important part of the new identity, establishing a consistent typographic hierarchy that could be applied across every touchpoint. From student-facing advertising and the website through to company documentation and tenancy agreements, everything now had the same clear and recognisable visual language.

We also developed a new tone of voice, moving away from the more erratic style of the previous communications in favour of something clear, direct and focused on the benefits of choosing APB. The intention was to speak to students in a way that felt confident and straightforward, without resorting to the clichés often associated with student accommodation.

The result was a brand that was almost entirely removed from what had come before it. Modern, professional and considerably more distinctive, it better reflects APB's position within the market while giving the business a consistent identity that can continue to grow with it.

Sometimes the best way to move a brand forward is to leave the past behind.