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It's over here nowWhat do you do when a brand is 70% there and the missing 30% is its soul?
Helgi
Grifo Developments came to us with their new sub-brand and website already part-built. It looked professional, polished and on trend. But the client's own verdict? 'I like it. But it's 70% there.'
Most studios would have reached for a new shade of green... we didn't. We went looking for a soul.
The original brand identity was born under a different name but the client changed it to Helgi. Unfortunately, the soul never caught up. It ticked every category box in build-to-rend and it did belong, but belonging isn't standing out.
So when DCTR was asked to pick up it up, we went back to the word itself. Helgi. Old Norse for productive, successful, happy. Not heroic strength. Nordic contentment. The answer was hiding in the name the whole time.
Client
Grifo Developments
Services
Brand Strategy
Print Design
CGI
Web Design
Digital Design
Every BTR brand wants to be the Monzo of renting. Loud, urban, all personality. Helgi's truth pointed somewhere quieter.
Kent and coastal. Houses with character, not glass towers. Families and downsizers, not just young professionals. And an insight worth its weight: for these renters the real luxury isn't a roof terrace. It's predictability. The feeling that 'they've got this, so I don't have to.'
Helgi isn't the Monzo of renting. It's the First Direct of renting.
From there, everything. A new proposition: renting should feel calm, fair and properly looked after. A belief to live by: Renting, Beautifully. A logomark drawn from Nordic knots. Folk patterns full of warmth and craft. A voice that reassures instead of shouts. CGI that trades performance for quiet, settled life. Hoardings, handbooks, resident app. One brand. One soul.
Belief isn't a deliverable. It's a relationship.
Matthew Bates, MD, Helgi said:
'Our project team have been impressed with DCTRs immediate understanding of our unique business model and points of difference.
Yes, they have bright ideas and bundles of enthusiasm, but that is clearly underpinned with sound strategic insight. The team listen well, have confidence in their ability, and follow up with delivery.
DCTR picked up a half-baked website and brand project that was a long way through delivery by a supposed industry leader and have helped our original vision come to life through a combination of UX and UI improvements. No silver bullets, more like marginal gains woven throughout the project.'
Helgi is now a retained DCTR client. All design, all creative, plus we host and evolve the website. The thinking and the making never drift apart.
The missing 30% was never a list of assets. It was belief. Now it's in everything Helgi does.
A calmer way to rent. Renting, Beautifully.
