Redfin Gets a Facelift and Expands Eastward
Redfin has unveiled a new version of it’s site tonight, that includes a total redesign of the entire site, a new color scheme and a brand new logo.
Aping UK search engine Extate’s recent redesign (see Extate Cranks Up the Heat), among other things it has gotten rid of the property balloons (something Redfin developer Matt Goyer alluded to recently) and sports a much larger map and simpler navigation. In my opinion, they’ve hit a home run in terms of usability with this version.
But while I love the new site, I’m not such a fan of the new logo. The change, according to Redfin, was “to avoid litigation threatened by Move.com, which holds a registered trademark over a symbol that, similar to the original Redfin logo, included a house within a circle.”
(One can’t help but wonder if Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman’s sparring with Alan Dalton at January’s Connect Conference in New York may have indirectly contributed to this action.)
The new logo combines an image of a person, a house and a fruit-tree - which strikes me as kind of weak and a bit incongruous. What picking fruit has to do with a company named after a perch, I’m not sure. But it sounds like they didn’t have much option… and at least they’re carrying on a proud tradition (see Why Do All Real Estate Logos Suck So Bad?).
In conjunction with the new site, the company also announced it has gone live in Boston, its fourth metropolitan market and its first on the East Coast. This solves the mystery of why Kelman was hanging out in Boston with the guys from Condo Blog.
Redfin now covers Essex, Norfolk, Middlesex and Suffolk counties, and include the cities of Cambridge, Concord, Lowell, Newton, Marlborough and Stoughton. The launch adds over 20,000 new listings to its search engine.
Update: Watch Redfin Marketing Director Eric Heller describe some of the changes to the site:
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6 Comment(s)
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- From Matt Goyer’s Real Estate Blog » Blog Archive » The new Redfin! | Apr 25, 2007
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Alex Mather | Apr 26, 2007 | Reply
Joel, I LOVE the new Redfin logo! It has a PERSON not a HOUSE. For a company that calls itself “consumer-centered” it makes a lot of sense to me and differentiation oneself from Move.com is a good thing.
Joel Burslem | Apr 26, 2007 | Reply
@Alex - I wasn’t a fan of their old logo but at least it was simple and spoke to what they do. Their new logo looks like something someone with a pirated version of Illustrator came up with it.
I like that it has a person on it but the picking fruit/tree analogy is just weird. The person is the tree trunk? And what does the name Redfin have to do with a tree anyway - when, for better or worse, it definitely has more aquatic associations. I don’t get it.
I know they probably paid top dollar for this logo, which is a shame ’cause their design agency just sold them a lame bag o’ goods.
Matt of Realivent | Apr 26, 2007 | Reply
For some reason it reminds me of that Budlight commercial where the house had a Budlight tree in the backyard.
Now that was a good comercial.
I like the logo, and their new website.
Erik Hersman | Apr 26, 2007 | Reply
“What picking fruit has to do with a company named after a perch, I’m not sure” - now that was funny.
Overall, I really like their usability, but I’m so-so on the design. Maybe it’ll grow on me.
shaun mclane | Apr 26, 2007 | Reply
I like the new logo, however, I think the post looks better than the new site.
Kaye Thomas | Apr 30, 2007 | Reply
Reminds me of the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate logo..