redwood trust
5 brands. 1 family. 1 design system.
Redwood Trust's family of brands had grown up with separate color identities, which made every deck, chart, and campaign a one-off decision. As the company's sole in-house designer, we created a single master palette that every brand draws from, along with a family of brands logo lockup that shows how the brands fit together. Each brand gets two or three signature colors that express its personality, tied together by a shared neutral palette, so the family feels connected without losing what makes each brand recognizable.
OVERVIEW
ROLE: Sole Designer
FINAL DELIVERABLES: Master color palette, family of brands logo lock up.
PROGRAMS: Figma, PowerPoint, Adobe Creative Suite
THE CHALLENGE
Each brand in the Redwood family had been built on its own, with colors ranging from bright blue to teal to orange. On their own, they worked. But whenever the brands appeared side by side, in investor decks, company-wide presentations, or charts comparing business units, they clashed and looked like unrelated companies. The goal was to create a system that let each brand keep its own identity while clearly belonging to one family.
Redwood Trust sits at the top of the family as the parent brand, with Sequoia, Aspire, CoreVest, RWT Horizons, and Redwood Investments each playing a distinct role beneath it. To make the relationship clear, We streamlined the logos so they read as one family, giving each a consistent treatment and an "A Redwood Company" endorsement line. The family of brands lockup brings it all together, showing each brand as a distinct part of one connected whole.
BRAND ARCHITECTURE
FAMILY OF BRANDS LOGOS
Each brand's logo had been designed separately, with its own styles and colors. We streamlined them into a consistent system, with matching color treatments and a shared "A Redwood Company" endorsement line, so every brand reads as part of the same family while keeping its own identity.
MASTER PALETTE
The master palette brings together 20 colors in four families: evergreen greens, warm browns, deep teals, and soft neutrals. Each brand leads with its own signature colors, while the full palette stays available for charts and supporting needs, so there's flexibility without losing consistency.
BRAND PALETTES
The system allows for unique identities. Not every brand is using every color. Each sub-brand's palette is pulled from the Redwood Trust master palette. Sequoia, Aspire, and CoreVest each take two to three primary colors that lean into their own brand personality, paired with the shared neutral palette that ties everything back to Redwood Trust.
