KIKO
Real Estate & Auctions
2026
Reaching aspirational market with in-house creative direction
TL:DR
I set and guide visual and creative concepts, designs, and their systems for an in-house team. We work agency-style for diverse client campaigns under strict brand limitations.
2 aspirational leads within three months of launch
From re-designed and re-branded booth at the same tradeshow as the past 4 years
113% more engagement over 3 months
as a result of new visual strategy on same Meta platforms
Challenge
GTM as the Cool 80-Year Old Brand
KIKO is a family-owned real estate and auction company established in 1945. KIKO contracts over 60 sales agents whose individual markets range from high-end residential real estate to industrial equipment to fine jewelry.
Solutions
Project Ownership
As the first designer in company history, I developed a cohesive strong visual identity for the KIKO brand. The identity retains iconic imagery from the 80 years of historic visuals but provides flexibility for the variety of client target markets and overall KIKO business objectives.
I own, develop, and maintain brand guidelines
I own, develop, and maintain brand guidelines for designers at KIKO and collaborative partners.
I lead creative direction and project management
I lead creative direction and project management for integrated client campaigns from concept to execution.
I design & maintain processes & systems
I design and maintain clear inter-departmental processes and scalable visual systems for myself, junior designers and creative partners to meet business goals.
Team Structure
Marketing Director
(me) Creative & Design Manager
Social Media Manager
Digital Marketing Manager
Junior Designer
Broll from a commercial I directed (videography by Keagan Henman of Black Cat Creative)
Approaches & Decisions
New Visual Guidelines
They had logos, colors, and a font that I couldn’t change. Did a material round-up. Looked for repeat visual motifs, interviewed clients for their communication preferences, and developed multiple high-fidelity variations. Led iterative feedback sessions for complete buy-in on one visual design for one company-wide use-case: the print advertising. Designed print branding in Adobe InDesign to have maximum flexibility for client preferences and offer ample development opportunities for other deliverables.
Created a priority-driven waterfall list of items to re-design. Any re-designed elements were printed and displayed in the corporate office to:
As inspiration and accountability to evolving visual language
To see and touch what target markets were seeing & touching (no early documents lived only on the drive to be forgotten)
Observe reactions of clients and invite feedback with them as user research
Harnessing New Flexible Visuals
New Formats for the Company Favorites
Example of visual identity in print, developed flexible templates in InDesign of direct mail marketing for agents: small postcards, large postcards, bi-fold self-mailers.
Holding Sub-brands In the Family
Aircraft brochures & pull-up banners: agents wanted to stand out at Oshkosh, wanted it to feel KIKO but not rural, kept similar motifs but changed lines to reference plane take-off.
Multi-unit LinkedIn campaign: director wanted this to be data driven, our team had limited access to metrics so needed to repackage same data points, received many AI drafts for copy but all reflected generic nature of data points, i rewrote 80% of copy re-contextualizing data to add value and crafting engaging copy for target audience, brand has no approved iconography (due to stakeholder preferences) and relies heavily on photography, designed a style for data visuals using agent-ambiguous photography using Illustrator and Photoshop, formatted for LinkedIn
Evolving KIKO Digital & My Increasing Involvement
Leadership wanted to re-design website but insisted on using JPG sketches from outside contractor. I owned and built usable UI files from 0-1 on Figma, collaborating with developers, finalizing handoff after 3 months while juggling agent work requests. Allowed project stalled for 4 years to finally move into development.
Evolving KIKO Digital & My Increasing Involvement
Leadership wanted to re-design website but insisted on using JPG sketches from outside contractor. I owned and built usable UI files from 0-1 on Figma, collaborating with developers, finalizing handoff after 3 months while juggling agent work requests. Allowed project stalled for 4 years to finally move into development.
Impacts
Business Impacts
My skills as an IC designer allowed KIKO to expand the team, and I took new title as creative manager.
Deeper client relationships led to increased YoY design campaign requests with my team
Leadership chose to create an identity for new division with me as creative lead
01
KIKO Expands Team
Important balances and supporting information competed for attention.
02
Increased Client Requests
Important balances and supporting information competed for attention.
03
Chosen to Lead New Division Identity
Important balances and supporting information competed for attention.
Reflections & Gut Research
I am much better at identifying and communicating when problem solutions must be answered at an operational level rather than with a visual campaign
Copy written by myself and my director seem (gut feeling—no data on this) to outperform AI in direct mail
An on-staff photographer would allow me to rely less on client photography and increase the quality of my deliverables
