Brand Identity
RedDoor
Mortgages are traditional, boring and rarely built for the people using them. I redesigned RedDoor's brand from the three most basic shapes there are, a triangle, a circle and a square, and turned them into a system for three products. Then Opendoor acquired the company.
Client
RedDoor
Industry
Mortgage technology / Fintech
Role
Brand & UI/UX Designer
Year
2021
RedDoor was a mortgage technology startup on a mission to make buying a home feel simple. My first design lead was working with Ali Mackani at the time and recommended me as a freelancer to redesign the brand. Ali loved the result and asked me to join full-time as Brand and UI/UX Designer. From there I shaped the visual language of RedDoor's three products: a consumer finance app and two tools for real estate agents and loan officers.
Challenge
Getting pre-approved for a mortgage is slow, paperwork-heavy and stressful, and many buyers worry it will hurt their credit. RedDoor had to make one of the least user-friendly processes out there feel memorable, and do it across three products for three very different people: homebuyers, agents and loan officers.
Solution
I built the logo from a triangle, a circle and a square, which kept the mark and symbol simple. Each shape carries a meaning. The triangle is our humans: a strong foundation. The circle is our products: unity, and the iterative process behind them. The square is the company: community, integrity and a safe place. Together they form the R, with the square lifted out as its signature detail. Around it, I built a brand system with shared elements that keep everything familiar and distinct elements that give each product its own face. On the product side, the finance app shows buyers their maximum buying power in under two minutes, through a few friendly questions and with zero impact on their credit score.
Outcome
A strong, simple brand built from three basic shapes, each with a reason to be there.
Three products that look different from each other and still clearly belong to one family.
A pre-approval flow that shows buying power in under two minutes, with zero impact on credit.
RedDoor was acquired by Opendoor in November 2021. I stayed on to integrate its technology into the Opendoor app, where it lived for a full year. Opendoor still owns the tech.
From freelancer to full-time
It started as a freelance brand redesign, recommended by my first design lead. Ali liked the work enough to make it a full-time job.
Three shapes, one R
A triangle, a circle and a square. The most basic shapes in geometry, and the most solid foundation for a simple mark. Put the triangle and the circle together and you get the R. Lift the square out and it becomes the detail people remember.
Every shape means something
The triangle stands for our humans: a strong foundation of spirit, mind and body. The circle stands for our products: unity, wholeness and an iterative process that never stops. The square stands for the company: community, integrity, direction and a safe place.
One family, three faces
A homebuyer, a real estate agent and a loan officer don’t need the same product, and they shouldn’t get the same look. Some brand elements are shared across all three apps. Others exist only to set each one apart. Different products, same family.
The exit
In November 2021, Opendoor acquired RedDoor. I stayed on to bring its technology into the Opendoor app, where it ran for a full year. The tech is still theirs.
Services
Brand identity, Logo redesign, UI/UX design, Visual language
Tools
Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects
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