Mercato Grove
Project Overview
Mercato Grove is a 206-unit luxury apartment community in Lake Oswego, Oregon — two years in the making and built around a singular vision: bringing the very best of downtown Portland to a suburban location.
The developers wanted to create something genuinely new — a seamless weaving of residential living and destination retail, anchored by six restaurants from the ChefStable Group. Our strategic response was to lean into the suburban location rather than apologize for it, positioning Mercato Grove as "the undowntown" — a hospitality-inspired destination with its own identity, its own name, and its own pull.
Role
Lead Designer
Photography Art Director
My Role
I served as Lead Designer and Photography Art Director across the full project, owning the visual identity system from brand concept and strategy through campaign execution and environmental design. That meant building the brand from the ground up, and art directing the photography that brought it to life across every channel: social, print, digital, and the property itself.
The Mercato Grove identity was built to function as a destination brand, not a typical apartment brand. The system scaled across the full range of touchpoints — logo, color palette, typography, signage, environmental graphics, website, digital and print advertising, social media, and large-scale public art — while maintaining a consistent visual personality: vibrant, confident, and community-forward. We also commissioned and documented a large-scale mural installation by Christian Téllez, and worked with local videographer Brian Burke to capture the process and extend the brand into video content.
The Brand System
The brand elements are rooted in the geography of Lake Oswego — organic shapes drawn from the shoreline of Oswego Lake, and flowing lines inspired by the two main corridors that lead to the property, Boones Ferry Road and Kruse Way.
The photography direction was a deliberate break from luxury apartment clichés — no wine-clinking, no dog-walking, no ladies with shopping bags. We cast a diverse group of models, brought in photographer Aaron Lee and stylist Patty Harding, and set out to inject color, daring, and genuine glamour into a location most Portlanders had written off as uncool. Working across 15+ locations with a dozen models and multiple wardrobe changes over two days on a tight budget, the goal was to be strategically brave — and to produce a body of work that felt more like a fashion editorial than a real estate campaign. The result established Mercato Grove not just as a place to live, but as a destination worth the drive.
Creative Rationale
Indigo Awards 2023: Gold in Promotional Materials; Silver in Branding for Real Estate
London Photography Awards 2024: Gold in Commercial Photography - Lifestyle; Gold in People Photography - Lifestyle; Honorable Mention in Architecture Photography - Real Estate
Recognition
Project Team
Creative Director: Jennifer Bryan
Content Strategist: Jamie Bourgidu
Photography Art Director: Danielle Breck
Lead Designer: Danielle Breck
Senior Designer: Bre Tauscher
Designed under the direction of Think Joule.
Project partners
Muralist: Christian Téllez
Photographer: Aaron Lee
Assistant: AJ Meeker
Stylist: Patty Harding
Trammell Crow Company
Greystar
CID Design Group