Housing Alexandria

Standing out as a leader in the future of affordable housing.

Objective:

After nearly 20 years of supporting the residents of Alexandria by offering affordable spaces to call home, the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation (AHDC) approached Mekanic to pursue a new name, updated brand, and website.

Strategy:

AHDC’s multiple properties were spread out all around the ALX area, and its residents were from diverse cultures and backgrounds. These properties and residents didn’t just merely represent the affordable housing landscape, they represented Alexandria itself.  The Mekanic team understood that the challenge was crafting a modern, inclusive, and emotive name and brand that would feel warm and inviting to existing and potential residents while evoking an aspirational and future-forward vision to attract donors, future staff, elected officials, and the general public.

Tactics:

We began our research and discovery work by conducting stakeholder interviews and holding workshops to gain as much insight as possible into the history of AHDC, as well as the area, the challenges residents were facing, and how potential residents came to find a home at AHDC. We set a large-scale naming exploration in motion, taking the insight we learned through discovery and submitting dozens of options to AHDC, before finally settling on Housing Alexandria as the new name. Once we had concluded the naming, we set to work building out the new brand and messaging. Both design and writing had to be indicative of the larger community that Housing Alexandria served, as well as all the potential residents, donors, and others Housing Alexandria would come across in its day-to-day work. We worked to define a brand that was colorful, modern, yet still inviting and warm. Finally, after naming, messaging, and design were approved – we moved the project into development for a new website that would greet potential residents and donors with a digital experience that was easy, intuitive, and responsive.

Outcome:

Housing Alexandria launched their new brand in the spring of 2023 with both digital and in-person rollouts. The rename and rebrand were warmly received by Housing Alexandria’s residents, staff, and the public. In the time since its rebrand, Housing Alexandria has broken ground on a number of new housing projects, including its very first home-ownership initiative, and are approaching their 20^th anniversary – for which Mekanic was once again approached to create a flagship brand video to commemorate their work.