Chris Stiff on the Camerons Stiff & Co Rebrand

Chris Stiff on the Rebrand, North West London, and Life Inside a Family Business

Camerons Stiff & Co opened in 1982, but half the name goes back all the way to the Edwardian era. It’s an independent estate agency with deep roots. Chris, the third generation of the family in the business, led its ambitious rebrand internally.

Jack Bleakley, founder of Blink Twice Studio, who shaped the new brand strategy and identity, sat down with Chris to talk about what this rebrand represents, his grandparents’ archive, the box logo they brought back, and why the next chapter starts on Lonsdale Road.

It Started in 1982

Start at the beginning. How did Camerons Stiff & Co come about?

“The business was founded by my grandparents in the early 1980s. My grandfather had been an estate agent for around 35 years before he set up on his own. He was a partner in an agency called Camerons, and that original agency had been around in North West London since the Edwardian era.

“We’ve got the most incredible black and white photographs of women in crinolines with Camerons boards up, with the old buses and trams.

“When they set the business up, the aim was really simple. It was to provide a conscientious, trustworthy service that put the client first. That philosophy has carried through for over 40 years.”

The Third Generation

How did the business pass down to your generation?

“My dad had been heavily involved from a very young age, since around 17 or 18. Then in 2001, when my grandfather passed away, the business was passed to my dad and my auntie, and their partners, my mum and my uncle, came in as well.

“They’ve done something really remarkable over the last 25 years. They took what was quite a small practice serving Queen’s Park and Willesden Green and turned it into something renowned throughout North West and West London.”

You qualified at Knight Frank. You could have stayed corporate. Why come home?

“When I qualified as a chartered surveyor at Knight Frank, I had the option to stay in the corporate world. And there were people that asked me, what’s the rationale for moving to your family business? It’s far smaller.

“I think you’re master of your own destiny. I’m almost treating this a bit like a startup, but with a business that’s 40 years old. It was the opportunity to take something so renowned, so trusted, and transform it into something different, but with the same philosophies and the same way of doing things.”

“I’m almost treating this a bit like a startup, but with a business that’s 40 years old.”

Independent, on Purpose

What can an independent do that a corporate brand can’t?

“I had experience in all different things at Knight Frank, but it was a very corporate atmosphere. And I recognised with our family business that people love an independent, family-owned business.

“Queen’s Park is particularly renowned for that, especially along Lonsdale Road. We’ve got several independent bakeries and coffee shops in Queen’s Park. Do local residents go to those, or do they go to the Starbucks?”

The Box in the Archive

The old box logo jumped off the page for both of us. What did you find when you opened the archive?

“My grandmother gave me this box of all this old marketing. My grandparents were quite sentimental. They kept all of it. There was marketing from 1982 to around 1984 where you could see different typographies, different iterations of the same logo. Where they were starting to find their feet.

“It was that maroon, deep burgundy box, with the classic typography, with the classic ampersand, that was on the boards. That was recognisable throughout North West London for around 25, 30 years. That’s something I was really keen to translate into what we were doing.”

Why the Old Mark Came Back

Logos drift over time, especially in an independent business. How far had you moved from the original?

“The original identity had been in play from around 1982 to around 2012. At that point, my mother, who was the creative director of the business, decided that, in response to a changing property market, we needed to freshen it up. So that’s when this new identity came into play, and we won awards in 2018, including UK Best Website at the International Property Awards.

“But the lineal theme remained the same. It remained that box, the Camerons Stiff with the ampersand and the Co. That claret colour carried throughout the business. Even on the previous logo, the black one, we’ve still got that claret ampersand. The box and the claret were what I was keen to keep, purely because they informed our identity and who we were.”

Old brands can end up feeling like museums. How did we avoid that?

“When I showed you all of these archive advertising materials, a key message that you gave me was that we cannot simply revert back to this. We can’t just scan all of this in and stick it on a website. It’s about extracting the DNA of all of that advertising material and presenting it to the world in the correct way.”

Still a Family Market

The boards have been on these streets since 1982. What’s changed since, and what hasn’t?

“A lot has changed in North West and West London since the business was founded. Ten years ago, if you wanted to sell a house bordering Queen’s Park, you pretty much went to Camerons Stiff or Knight Frank. There’s a huge amount of choice now.

“But a lot also hasn’t. It’s still a needs-based, family-run market. It’s families upsizing, families downsizing, whether it’s to release equity or get a bigger garden. That was the same in the 1980s as it is today.

“It’s that family atmosphere that Queen’s Park is so famous for. The Mapesbury Dell up in Mapesbury and the detached houses up there.”

Off the High Street

No shopfront is a statement for an estate agent. Why leave Salusbury Road?

“Our move off the high street reflects our desire to not be seen as a traditional, slightly stuffy option. We are an independent business, and we can pull up the handbrake and take a sharp left if we need to. A lot of these high street brands can’t do that.

“That office on Salusbury Road was almost a legacy piece. We’ve always had an office on the high street, because to operate successfully you needed an office. But you don’t anymore.”

“We can pull up the handbrake and take a sharp left if we need to.”

Borrowing an Allen Key

Three generations of your family have lived here and sold homes here. What does the neighbourhood mean to you?

“In London, there’s often a misconception that that community feel is no longer there. I would really push against that. In North West London, there are little pockets of communities in Willesden Green and the Mapesbury Conservation Area and Queen’s Park and Kensal, where there really is that real community feel.

“We took the decision to move away from the high street and relocate under one roof on Lonsdale Road. We were in there the other day, taking the desks apart, and I realised I needed an Allen key. There was no Allen key around at all. So I ran to Wolfpack and I went behind the bar. ‘Guys, have you got an Allen key?’ ‘Yeah, mate, here you go.’

“All these independent businesses ultimately help one another. We prop each other up. That’s why Queen’s Park is becoming a destination in its own right.”

Is that where North by West comes in?

“Our decision to launch a bespoke publication, North by West, speaks to that. There are so many hidden gems. Stories of independent businesses, business founders, in the spotlight. We want to be at the forefront of that push to making Queen’s Park and Kensal Rise and Mapesbury more known.”

---

Interview by Jack Bleakley. Written by Alex Walker, lead writer at North by West.