LivingLab is now Alcove

LivingLab is now Alcove. We’re dedicated to providing the best coliving experience you can find, now with a new look and feel. We wanted to give an insider’s peek into how the rebrand was conceived and what it means for the bigger picture for our company and coliving in general.

The Name

An alcove is a recess in a room, partially enclosed by either walls or pillars. In other words, an alcove is a nook or corner in a living space that embodies comfort and sparks the imagination. The pillars surrounding the alcove are strong and stable, supporting our lives through the ups and downs, trials and tribulations and all the other gobbledygook we can think of.

When nestled up with a book or conversation, the alcove provides a place of closeness. We wanted our new brand to utilize these feelings of comfort and closeness because we believe in the shared purpose of coliving.

When society feels disjointed, coliving represents a way to build connections, whether in the house you live in with roommates or community events you attend. Because we’re focused on building tight-knit communities in cities wherever we go, we believe that “alcove” provides a trustworthy environment to do this.

Besides the ethereal meanings, “alcove” literally represents coliving with the use of “co” in the name and “love” as well. When you use our service and interact with our brand, we want you to enjoy the experience. And when you move into your new coliving arrangement, we hope you love where you live and who you live with.

The Logo Mark

We utilized the help of some incredible designers to build something we felt conveyed a lot of meaning in a simple and inviting shape. With a more friendly and sophisticated look and feel, we believe the logo speaks to our values.

Here are some progress pics to show how the concept evolved:

Logo exploration

The team responded strongest to the abstract home (2nd option), as it could be used in a variety of mediums and fits many concepts into one shape. We decided to explore different iterations of this icon.

Iterations of the icon:

After a discovery phase of more abstract concepts (some representing one room in a coliving house, upgrading your lifestyle, etc.), the initial, more geometric version stood out among the rest. It’s clean, simple and most importantly, instantly recognizable. After a few more tweaks, we landed on this:

To us, the new logo is not only a house, but a home — fit with a door and doormat — that just so happens to build an “A”. The curvature of the two shapes also builds an alcove, acting as a window to the outside world and a peek into the lives we live. It all comes together with the locking elements, almost creating a “master lock” and providing feelings of safety and trust.

The Brand

Here is the brand used in various environments:

Love where you live - Alcove

Change is necessary to get to where you want to go. With this new name, logo and brand, we’re determined to bring coliving into the mainstream and change the perception that coliving is only for a small group of people; in reality it’s for everyone.

We want to thank our community for sharing this journey with us and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for Alcove and coliving as a whole.

We’d like to shoutout Catalog (https://www.trycatalog.com/), our design partner who helped us realize this vision.

In the meantime, feel free to learn more about us. We've got big plans for the future.

See you soon,

The Alcove team