Arcadian Beaver Cree: Branding, Website & Sales Materials

Sep 1

The Need

In September of 2023, established luxury home developers The Aidan Group successfully purchased the last remaining parcel of undeveloped land behind the gates of Beaver Creek. With over a decade having passed since the last major development within the resort they had a vision for a modern, aspirational micro-community that still fit into the well-defined aesthetic and feel of the area. As Creative Project Manager at Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate, especially in my capacity with their New Development Sales + Consulting arm, I helped craft proposal materials that secured their listing. The development faced headwinds from the outset, with many community members believing that the area would never be developed, so I got to work crafting a brand and a story that would showcase how this new project would be an asset to new and existing homeowners. The vision was a mix of 12 new homes, a mix of single-family, duplex, and triplex, all offering top-tier finishes and amenities, and leading the way forward for modern architecture in Beaver Creek.

The Solution(s)

Brand System

The first need for Arcadian was, in fact, the name. The Aidan Group had run a series of projects across Colorado all bearing the “Aidan” name, however, they’d previously developed an in-market project called Aidan Meadows, so our team was of the belief that Aidan Beaver Creek would be likely to cause confusion. So step one was to run through an intensive naming exercise with the Aidan team; on our team the name Arcadian stuck out as a clear winner. Both evocative of the idyllic wilds of the site, and proud and modern to convey the market-leading nature of the project, the name also slyly used all the characters from “Aidan” to help bring their team on board with the name.

With the name in place, I then turned to developing the brand identity and system that would bring the project to life. Overall the identity needed to balance two competing forces, luxury quality and modern design. For the icon, I took a look at the site itself and distilled down its most essential elements, the creek running outside, the chalk cliffs above, and Beaver Creek mountain rising in the distance. These elements I circumscribed into a “rising sun” icon to give the brand the feeling of a dawning new day.

Standard appearance of the Arcadian Brand

To complete the identity I then looked to the Aidan Group’s past projects and at the group itself, all very successful and respected in Colorado real estate development, I borrowed elements from those brands including typography and color palette to give an elevated appearance that leaned into their building of a family of brands. Finally, I filled the kit out with some subtle decor assets, swooping lines of vector art to give the feeling of running water, as the proximity to Beaver Creek is a key selling point of the project.

View The Full Brand Package

Website

Next step, the primary point of public contact with the brand, the website. As with many projects I worked on for the Slifer Smith & Frampton new development division, the easy choice for the project was a clean and simple Squarespace site with a suite of integrated programs that kept the project fully synced with company systems including integrations from our design program Marq, and CRM system BoldTrail. With these self-updating integrations the site was able to seamlessly keep itself up to date as we navigated several flurries of public interest in the project. One interesting feature of note for the site was the application of an interactive sitemap that showed available residence and their location on the site, generating sales-driving interest in the properties that remained available.

View The Website

Sales Materials

As we approached our public launch of the project my next tasks was the creation of a suite of sales materials and promotional items. For a project of this dollar volume the full set was naturally pretty intensive. Display boards, floorplans, swag, price sheets and much much more were all brought to brand standard and set up for fast-paced use. The crowning piece though was our brochure/folder, lovingly dubbed the “brolder”. I worked with a trusted local print vendor to first create a suite of elevated pocket folders on a striking two-toned stock (duplex stock for my paper nerds out there) and foil it with a silvery-blue replication of the Arcadian mark. We then strategically took some of those folders for immediate use, then left the reserve with the printer until the pages you see below were completed. Finally the pages were stitched into the folder meaning that the sales team could easily grab a high-quality brochure off the shelf with all the standard project info already stitched into it, and then fill the pockets with all the particulars of a given sales meeting.

The result was a piece resoundingly called the new gold-standard of development materials.

Advertising

Advertising for Arcadian took place in several phases but always incorporated digital, print, and environmental tactics. Fortunately for a project that looks this good (and has this high-quality of renderings) my job was mostly to dangle a hook and get out of the way of the imagery. Still we were able to find some very fun and elevated ways to play on Arcadian’s double-meaning as a type of paradise, as well as incorporate imagery of the vibrantly running creek on the property.

A print ad for Beaver Creek Magazine. The project held the opening spread for both 2024 and 2025.

Sales Offices & Events

This is where it all came together. For a project of this scale Slifer Smith & Frampton dedicated their sales location within the lobby The Westin Riverfront in Avon, just steps away from the site, as the official showroom for Arcadian. This meant working with our office installations team to create displays of the brand both interactive and static that would showcase this incredible project. When the project was finally ready to go in front of the public we brought it all out, sales materials, swag, displays, advertising and more to create one of the most memorable project launches in company history.

The Results

This project was a journey from inception to launch. The Aidan Group had to navigate a huge number of regulatory hurdles to obtain permits to build and this meant our movement from preparation to whisper campaign to formal launch was a moving target. In the end Arcadian was about six months late in coming out to the public due to approval constraints, but our branding, advertising, and materials were always at the ready to help educate the public about this process and remain flexible in a dynamic environment. It seems though that maybe that extra time only helped us build some hype as the launch event was the most well-attended in years, and phase 1 of the project sold out within months.