Work History / Lïef Development
Lïef two-brand systemOne company brand, one project brand, and a rule for which to use
Jimmy split Lïef into a company brand for the industry and a project brand for home buyers, and wrote the standard that governs both.
Brand · 2024 to 2026
| Project type | Brand architecture and visual standard |
|---|---|
| Industry | Residential real estate development |
| Seat | Principal, Brand and Product Merchandising |
| Ran through | Common Ground, for Lïef Development |
| Dates | 2024 to 2026 |
| Location | Midtown Phoenix, Arizona |
| Worked with | Jesse Fowler, the narrative the brand was built around, and the name Lïef. Jimmy, the brand system and the Japandi-meets-Sonoran concept |
What it is
Lïef Development was founded on April 24, 2024. Its flagship project is the adaptive reuse of a 1971 office building at 301 W Osborn Road in Midtown Phoenix into 22 residences.
The company speaks to investors, developers, general contractors and trade press. The project speaks to home buyers, design press and agents. One identity could not serve both audiences, so the work became two systems with shared roots.
The project brand guide is dated January 17, 2025. The company brand guide is dated May 2025. Both are Keynote files with no author field. The media kit of May 2025 describes his role as making sure the identity, vision and values of Lïef are carried into its developments. The written standard names him as its owner.
What Jimmy did
- Built the brand identity and the brand guide for the project.
- Set the project type system: Japandi Bold for headings, Japandi Regular for body text, and Piala Regular for the wordmark at a kerning value of 13. Japandi and Piala are licensed third-party typefaces.
- Keyed the January 2025 palette to eight Sherwin-Williams paint numbers, grouped under Scandinavian minimalism, Japanese tranquility, Arizonan serenity and a foundation pair. The May 2025 guide grouped nine colors as key brand colors, accents and foundation.
- Drew the leaf mark and wrote its meaning into the guide. Two leaves dot the letter i. The spacing between the letters stands for room to breathe.
- Created the design concept the project is built on, where Japandi restraint meets the Sonoran desert.
- Chose and licensed the typefaces and wrote the brand standards. For the wordmark he adjusted the kerning of Piala and added the diaeresis. The name Lïef came from his partner Jesse Fowler.
- Set clear space at the height of the lowercase e and listed eight misuses, from adding shadows to recoloring.
- Defined the two-brand architecture. Lïef Development is the company brand, in deep green with a neon accent, set in Archivo Black and DM Sans. Lïef Osborn is the project brand, in warm earth tones, set in Japandi.
- Wrote a decision table that assigns each kind of content to one system, with the rule that the two are never blended in a single asset.
- Set the spelling rule. The name carries the diaeresis in all brand copy and drops it only in domains, email addresses and handles.
- Ruled on June 22, 2026 that the brand palette governs visual identity only and is not a specification for building materials.
- Created a shared drive on June 22, 2026 that holds only logos, split by system, so partners and agents reach brand assets and nothing else.
- Purchased the commercial license for Piala on June 25, 2026, which cleared the wordmark typeface for production.
Results
- The brand guide is filed in the project data room, in the architect documents and in the builder pre-construction package.
- An outside marketing agency reviewed the two-brand system in written feedback dated April 22, 2026 and called the split "one of the smarter structural decisions we've seen in a project brief."
- The standard was unified into one two-system document on May 2, 2026 and is marked active, with both palettes and both type pairings locked.
- The compiled plan set of September 2026 names liefmidtownphx.com as the source of truth for the brand.