Led by creative director Rebecca Caldwell and practice director Andy Keeffe, Maytree Studios is an employee-owned residential architecture practice with studios in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast. The studio designs new houses and renovations across South East Queensland whose architecture is expressive and confident, yet robust and carefully crafted, and it is known for a close, collaborative way of working with its clients.

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Office D.SHARP worked with Maytree to bring the design ambition of its recent houses to the fore while preserving the warmth of its client relationships. The work drew on interviews and a survey of past and current clients, and has since informed new website text, a simplified website and the photography of recently completed houses.

Office D.SHARP worked with Maytree through the second half of 2024, with the completed plan delivered in December. Having built a steady residential practice on a clear set of values, namely approachable architecture, a transparent process and careful management of clients' budgets, the directors felt that the studio's marketing conveyed those qualities well but gave less attention to the design ambition evident in its recent houses.

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Their aim was to develop a more mature brand presence that reflected the standard of the built work, a cohesive approach to communications across the leadership team, and a stronger profile across South East Queensland.

We began by holding workshops with the directors, then assessed the practice's website, imagery, writing and social media against a group of Queensland and interstate peers. The practice's project descriptions and the open presentation of its team were established strengths, and its employee ownership structure was a distinctive feature in its own right.

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The areas requiring attention were the written messaging, the curation of the portfolio and the consistency of social media. The conversational tone that had served the practice well left limited room to describe the architectural qualities of the work, so its houses were not always presented with the same clarity as its service.

To understand how the practice was seen by the people who knew it best, we interviewed three clients at length and, with the directors, developed a survey for past and current clients.

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The results confirmed that clients had understood the practice's existing messages well, associating Maytree most strongly with approachability, budget management and robust process. The research also pointed to an opportunity to communicate the character of the architecture as clearly as the experience of working with the team, and this became the focus of the new positioning.

We developed the positioning in workshops with the directors and refined it with feedback from the wider team at a studio session, arriving together at four concepts: ambitious, rigorous, respectful and honest.

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We wrote each concept to describe both the architecture and the client relationship. Rigour, for example, refers to detailing and craftsmanship as well as briefing, budget and process management, while honesty covers robust materials and construction knowledge along with transparent dealings with clients. This allowed the practice to give more weight to design while keeping the values it had been built on.

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Alongside the positioning, we set objectives for the year ahead, focused on increasing awareness of the practice in the South East Queensland residential market, improving how its brand is perceived, and strengthening referral and repeat work from existing clients and collaborators.

Most of our recommendations in the marketing plan concerned presentation. On the website, we advised keeping the existing design and simplifying it to focus attention on the work, and recommended engaging a copywriter to refresh the practice statement and team biographies in a crafted, understated voice.

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For project content, we recommended commissioning photographers with a composed, atmospheric approach for selected projects, together with film, construction-stage photography and visualisations of houses still in design. We also made recommendations for media and awards and for staying in touch with past clients and collaborators, accompanied by a 12-month timeline and a list of suggested suppliers.

Implementation began early in 2025. Writer Rebecca Gross, one of the copywriters suggested in the plan, prepared new text for the website, and the studio page now describes expressive, confident architecture alongside the practice's collaborative approach.

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New work has been photographed as it has been completed. Bob the Building, a house in Bardon finished in 2026, was photographed by Clinton Weaver, one of the photographers named in the plan, and Jack Gibson has photographed a series of recent projects including Goldilocks Haus and Fairytale House.

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In October 2025 we met with the team again to prepare a press strategy for a group of newly completed projects, and Goldilocks Haus has since been published by The Design Files and shortlisted in the 2026 Houses Awards.

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Maytree Studios now presents its houses with the same confidence it brings to its client relationships, giving the architecture its due while keeping the open and personable character the practice is known for.

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Images by Clinton Weaver and Jack Gibson.