MAXA Designs

The Brand

About FirstTeam® Real Estate

Founded on the West Coast, FirstTeam® Real Estate is one of the most recognized national independent brokerages in the country. Lauren Henss, VP of Marketing and Strategic Initiatives, leads a robust marketing team serving more than 2,200 agents — building a modern identity that is, in her words, understood, admired, and respected.

Their rebrand, developed in partnership with 1000WATT, gave them a visual identity. What Lauren's team built was the full commercial activation and the omnichannel engine that took the brand from a design system to a living presence in the market — a full advertising ecosystem resulting in a challenger brand.

West Coast
2,200+ Agents
Indep. Brokerage
Founded W. Coast

*FirstTeam® Real Estate brand identity system — the FT logo lockup and brand mark.*

Why They Won

What Judges Said

Omni-Channel Consistency
- FirstTeam's submission demonstrated true omni-channel execution — digital, print, social, and agent-facing materials all speaking in the same visual voice without degradation across any surface.
Agent-First Brand Architecture
- The Behind the Agent strategy inverts the typical brokerage brand model. The agent is the hero. FirstTeam is the infrastructure. Judges recognized this as a deliberate, well-executed structural decision — not a marketing line.
Activation at Scale
- Designing a brand is one thing. Activating it across 2,200+ agents without losing coherence is another. FirstTeam's custom e-commerce function within MAXA, with defined turnaround times and locked guardrails, is the system that makes the design real.

"'Attract the few, repel the many' is a brand clarity principle that most companies are afraid to commit to. FirstTeam committed."

— Exhibit Awards 2026 Judging Panel

the work

Brand Design Gallery

A selection of the work submitted for judging — from digital touchpoints to print and social.

No items found.

Brand assets submitted for the 2026 Exhibit Awards. All materials property of

FIRSTTEAM® REAL ESTATE

the story

Case Study Deep Dive

The Challenge

FirstTeam® Real Estate had a strong legacy but needed a brand that could activate at scale — one that would give 2,200+ agents a coherent identity they wanted to use, while simultaneously building a consumer brand strong enough to drive business. The challenge: activate a newly designed brand system across every channel, every agent, and every market without losing either the agent or the consumer in the process.

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The Approach

Lauren Henss built the Behind the Agent campaign as an operating philosophy, not a tagline. FirstTeam is the force behind agents — not the face in front of them. Within MAXA, the team built a custom e-commerce function: agents can self-serve from on-brand templates, pay a design fee for custom work, or have the marketing team build something net new — all with defined turnaround times and brand guardrails that make compliance the path of least resistance. Campaigns are measured against three buckets: recruitment, retention, and revenue. If it doesn't serve one of those three, it doesn't run.

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"Brand is not what sits on top of the business; it's the foundation beneath it. It is the strategic advantage that turns awareness into trust, trust into preference, and preference into growth. Without a strong brand, you're not distinct. You're interchangeable."
‍_{Lauren Henss — VP of Marketing and Strategic Initiatives, FirstTeam® Real Estate}

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The Result

FirstTeam's Behind the Agent campaign earned recognition as the West Coast Above 1,000 Agents winner at the 2026 Exhibit Awards — the first time an omni-channel, agent-first brand strategy at this scale was recognized at a national level. Their all-female leadership team tied to a multi-billion-dollar growth goal proved that doing things differently produces results that demand to be noticed.

the JUDGES