Concept project · Pool builder

Sheet A · Site plan · Concept project

The pool is part of the house.

A concept identity for an imagined pool builder in Johannesburg North and Pretoria East. It starts where the work starts: with the plan, the materials and the line where house, terrace and water meet.

Concept project. Marlowe Pools is an original fictional business created by CVO Atlas to show its branding work. It is not a real company.

ClientMarlowe Pools
DisciplineIdentity and website
StatusConcept
A long pool with a stone terrace and an open, glass-walled living room behind it, placed in the pool on the site plan.
01 House · Structure
Every layout starts on a measured grid, drawn like the house: square, deliberate and calm.
02 Terrace · Space
Generous margins and fine one-pixel rules give the content room, the way a terrace gives the house room.
03 Pool · Water
Lagoon is the only accent colour: the one thing that catches the eye, used once in each view.
04 Garden · Setting
Photography is framed and placed, like a view through a window, so the drawing always leads.

Sheet B · The idea

Structure and space create confidence.

Most pool companies sell blue water. Marlowe sells the thinking behind it: a pool drawn as part of the house, built in honest materials and finished with care. So the identity speaks the language of the plan, the material sample and the measured line.

Section drawing: the house, the terrace and the pool, with the water line 150 millimetres below the coping. HOUSETERRACEGARDEN WATER LINE · 150 BELOW COPING
01

Plan first

Every application starts from a grid and a measured line, never from decoration.

02

Honest materials

Colour is taken from stone, plaster, water and shade, and specified like a finish.

03

Calm water

Motion is restrained: lines draw in, then hold still. Nothing splashes.

Who

Homeowners planning a new pool or renovating an old one

Worry

Pool builds feel messy, late and hard to picture in advance

Answer

Show the plan before the dig: clear, measured, calm

Voice

Plain, precise and warm. One promise per sentence.

Sheet C · The mark

A wordmark, and a plan to sign it.

The wordmark keeps Marlowe in a quiet editorial serif, with POOLS tracked out beside it like a note on a drawing. The mark is the whole idea in one square: the house, the terrace edge and the pool, the only filled shape.

The Marlowe Pools wordmark: Marlowe in Instrument Serif, with POOLS in tracked Manrope.
The plan mark: a square plot with the house band at the top, a dashed terrace edge and the pool as a lagoon rectangle. 100 40 64 26 CLEAR SPACE 20

House 40 of 100 · pool 64 × 26 · clear space 20 on every side

Horizontal · the main lockup
The horizontal lockup: the plan mark beside the wordmark.
Reversed · on deep water
The horizontal lockup reversed in limestone on deep water.
Small sizes
The mark as a solid tile, 64 pixels.The tile at 32 pixels.The tile at 16 pixels.The one-colour mark.
Rule 1One line weight

Fine rules at one pixel; only the outline of the mark is heavier.

Rule 2One accent

Lagoon fills the pool and nothing else in the mark.

Rule 3Square plans

The mark is never stretched, rotated or drawn in perspective.

Rule 4Room to breathe

Keep clear space of one terrace width around every lockup.

Sheet D · Materials

Colour, specified like a material.

Six colours, named after the finishes they come from and used in fixed proportions: mostly stone and plaster, a little water. Choose a sample to see where it is used.

Proportion in a typical view

Limestone
58%
Page grounds, paper, the sheet itself.
Sand plaster
14%
Panels and quieter sections.
Night ink
10%
Type, lines and the mark.
Deep water
10%
Feature panels and the site board band.
Shade
4%
Notes, labels and dimensions.
Lagoon
4%
The pool, one highlight per view and nothing else.
Pale stone coping meeting clear blue water: the limestone and lagoon of the palette. Stone steps descending into a pool: the sand plaster tones of the palette.
The palette is taken from the materials: stone coping, plaster, water. Licensed photography, illustrative only.

Sheet E · Type

Two voices: the headline and the note.

Instrument Serif speaks for the brand, with an italic for the one phrase that matters. Manrope carries everything practical, and in tracked capitals it becomes the annotation on the drawing.

Instrument Serif · headlines

Pools built for the way you live outside.

Manrope · text and annotations

One team, from the first sketch to the first swim.

03 Pool · 12 000 × 5 000

Display · serifThe pool is part of the house.
Heading · serifDesigned around the house
Text · ManropeBefore we draw a line, we look at how the pool will meet the terrace, the doors and the view from inside.
Note · Manrope capsSheet 02 · Concept plan · 1:100

Sheet F · Applications

The same plan, at work.

The website is drawn from the same sheet: the plan mark in the header, lettered navigation, a site plan in the hero and services set out like a schedule. Scroll inside the frame to read it.

The Marlowe Pools website on desktop: a site-plan hero with the pool photograph, services as a numbered schedule, a design feature on deep water, four project stages along a dimension line, framed project sheets and a request for a site visit.
The Marlowe Pools website on a phone: the same plan in one column, with the menu, the hero, the site plan and the services schedule.
  1. Plan mark in the header. The horizontal lockup leads every page.
  2. Lettered navigation. A to E, like a drawing legend.
  3. A site plan for a hero. The photograph sits in the pool.
  4. Services as a schedule. Numbered rows and fine rules.
  5. One clear action. Request a site visit, in night ink.

Proposal drawing

The quote arrives as a drawing.

Every proposal starts with a concept plan on a standard sheet, so the client sees the pool before the price. The title block carries the mark.

Sample sheet with placeholder details; not a real project.

Site board

On the street, while we build.

A board for the front wall during the build: calm, legible from the pavement, and honest about what is happening behind it.

Credits

Concept project. Marlowe Pools is an original fictional business created by CVO Atlas to show its branding work. It is not a real company and offers no services. Concept, identity, website and applications by CVO Atlas. The photographs are illustrative: they do not show Marlowe Pools projects, and CVO Atlas did not design or build the pools or buildings shown.

Photography licensed from Unsplash under the Unsplash License:

  • Avi Werde, house and pool
  • Judith Smit, courtyard pool
  • karl muscat, stone steps
  • Marcus Ganahl, coping and water
  • RETRATO INMOBILIARIO, terrace pool
  • Shawn, courtyard pool and cabana
  • Kei Nakada, reflecting pool
  • Strvnge Films, pavilion pool
  • Roberto Nickson, terrace pool at dusk

Instrument Serif and Manrope are used under the SIL Open Font Licence.