Noë & Associates were appointed to create the name, brand strategy, and marketing campaign for Beckford House & Tower. Located on East 80th and East 81st Streets, we worked with developer Icon and award-winning design firm Studio Sofield to create a brand identity and collateral that elegantly complement these gracious residential buildings with the right balance of classic and contemporary. The 104 apartments recall the grandeur of the work of Rosaria Candela and celebrate an artisanal and handcrafted approach to interiors. The craftsmanship, grand spaces, and exquisite detailing inherent to the building are celebrated throughout all the communications. The uniqueness of the sister buildings is illustrated in the brand identity – two distinctive tassels which will be incorporated in stone into the finished facades, intertwining to become one.
Scope: Brand Strategy, Naming, Identity, Guidelines, Advertising, Literature, Stationery, Renders, Animations, Film, Photography, Art Direction, Copywriting, Sales Gallery Design, Website, Marketing Software, Production.
William Sofield“I approach design as a series of emotional experiences. Each space with its own narrative, like if someone could tell a story while walking through the building.”
The Cooper Hewitt“Known for his unique take on modernism, William Sofield believes that design must not only look good but live well.”
Every detail of the project was considered to reflect the inherent quality in the finished buildings. Silk and linen papers were combined with the most intricate artisanal engravings and multi-level embossings, creating a suite of materials evoking times gone by.
In a move away from walls of glass, the developer, Icon and Studio Sofield used hand laid, hand-carved bricks and stone to create two unique and authentic masonry facades reminiscent of pre war designs. Over several months Noë & Associates documented the craftsmen and women behind the project, including Vermont Stone Art who carved the finest Indiana Limestone into shape.
Whitney Fellows, Vermont Stone Art“We manufactured many thousands of custom crafted stones. Each was individually cut to size, shaped, finished and numbered, to be hand-laid by expert stonemasons.”
William Sofield is at heart, a contextualist. In collaboration with his close-knit team of designers and architects, he has achieved a difficult artistic balancing act by creating instantly recognisable, architecturally distinct buildings that blend harmoniously with their upper east side neighbours. Our approach to visualising these elegant unbuilt environments was to spend a considerable amount of time interrogating and creating the most detailed textures and lighting conditions, and the compositions for the images, which then highlight the meticulous detailing of the buildings in the most exquisite way.
William Sofield“So much is now said about ‘lifestyle’ and how people can be categorised into ‘types’. This has been overplayed. People define their own lives and I just want to help them express that”.