Home Buddies by Cocomilk

If there’s one good thing that came out of the pandemic, it was the strengthened bonds within some families—and the inward focus on how to improve their homes.

With everyone stuck indoors, why not make the most of it? That’s where Home Buddies was born: an online space for homeownership tips, from renovation advice to irresistible budols (appliance sales, like vacuums and air fryers—we know, we’re guilty too!).

To build a stronger brand identity, they reached out to Cocomilk—not just to decorate the brand, but to refresh its entire system.

Project Rationale:

One of Cocomilk’s clients was Home Buddies, an online community and a safe space for home enthusiasts to share and discover tips, ideas, and homeownership stories. Started by Frances Cabatuando as a simple idea to engage with like-minded people during the lockdown, the Facebook group has grown into a thriving network of over three million members, the largest in Southeast Asia. Home Buddies has gone beyond sharing inspo—they now have live events, meet-ups, brand deals, and an offshoot group called Hangout Buddies.

Enlisting Cocomilk’s help, Home Buddies wanted to reflect their growth with a more elevated and refined design language to unify its moving parts and to flourish beyond the screen. Cocomilk refreshed their brand strategy and visual identity to communicate their unique, fun, and welcoming Kapitbahay spirit through their website. Then, Cocomilk created and wrote long-form content to expand their range across platforms like Instagram, podcasts, and an Anniversary Bazaar.

Even with Home Buddies’s continuous growth, their brand identity remains rooted in their humble beginnings—reflective of the community’s welcoming nature and camaraderie.

About the Logo

Home Buddies wanted to stay true to the essence of the original logo while giving it cleaner and more timeless refinements. The heart within a chat box speaks to Home Buddies’s friendly and collaborative online space, while the broader base of the house signifies a growing, welcoming community. To make the overall brand more modern, we selected a new and straightforward typeface that maintains the feel of the original. All these elements come together to create a simple yet meaningful logo.

Color Palettes

The palette draws from the original Home Buddies colors. The previous red, sky blue, and teal shades were made brighter and more vibrant to reflect the friendly spirit of the brand. Light seafoam green and golden yellow were added to the selection to bring warmth.

Iconography

To complete the brand’s visuals, we created a set of icons to symbolize the different topics and interests of the Home Buddies community. Each icon features rounded lines and corners to communicate a playful and relaxing mood. With their simple designs representing everything from budol finds to home renovation hacks, these icons make the brand feel all the more welcoming to all its Kapitbahays.

Brand Voice

Akin to a barangay, Home Buddies functions as a tight-knit group where you can ask for help and discover new ideas. Led by “Mayora” Frances and her “Tanods” as moderators, the Facebook community strikes a balance between friendly and informed to keep the space engaging and inclusive. We wanted Home Buddies’s tone of voice to be similar to your favorite tita—warm, welcoming, and helpful to make bisitas feel at ease. This level of casual conversation encourages people to share their thoughts freely, just like a friendly afternoon chat.

Content

To expand the brand’s horizons, We used our editorial skills to consistently provide up-to-trend lifestyle blog posts about relevant topics as content for the website. With tips ranging from budol recommendations to home renovations, these articles effectively improved SEO visibility, generated leads, and increased user engagement across the board.

Collaterals and Merchandise

To top off their brand refresh, we created a wide variety of collaterals such as business cards, letterheads, presentation decks, and digital backgrounds. Additionally, we created designs of Home Buddies merchandise, such as mugs and notebooks, to anticipate the community’s further growth and future events. Through consistent branding, the Home Buddies spirit could be felt both in and beyond the Facebook group.

Social Media

In order to further streamline brand identity, we created different templates for their Facebook and Instagram pages. These can also be used to repurpose existing content from the group into something fresh and inviting.

To showcase the rich content of the group, we’ve categorized these templates into buckets.

From Kapitbahay Features that show Kapitbahays’ inspirational home renovations and hacks, to Educational Features that provide information and user-tested, top-notch tips from professionals and group members, these were designed to help those unfamiliar with the brand peek into what Home Buddies is all about.

We also created Brand Features that showcase Home Buddies’s Mayora and tanods day-to-day to draw attention to announcements, highlights, and events that bring the community together. And who could forget the iconic budols, showcased in the Engagement Posts to highlight the talk of the town or anything and everything that could interest the Kapitbahays.

Though these templates are used for different purposes, they all boost visibility, communication, and collaboration among the Kapitbahays to strengthen their community.

Website

We designed and developed their website to be a hub for the best that the community has to offer. Designed to be user-friendly on the phone and desktop, the site features useful tools such as home calculators, Kapitbahay’s blogs, and even their informative podcast.

It uses a content management system so Home Buddies can easily update, manage, and host content. This curated, concise collection was created to widen their online presence beyond the Facebook group but still feature Home Buddies’s identity as a network of home enthusiasts.

Handy Home Calculator

One of the unique features that we built for the website is the Handy Home Calculator—a user-friendly tool to answer home-building questions related to tiles, paint, aircon, and energy consumption. Home Buddies has a strong culture of sharing user-tested and expert-led tips to one another, and we wanted to reflect this in the website’s user experience. With professionally verified information and a welcoming, accessible nature, Home Buddies has become one of the leading resources for home-related resources and tips, big and small.

Home Buddies have tapped a market that has always been there but was never maximized until one started the conversation. Cocomilk made this branding not just as decoration, but as a way to shape community, strengthen identity, and reflect the evolving story of home. When design is grounded in purpose, even the most everyday spaces can feel personal, intentional, and truly lived in.

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Brand Identity Design, Website Design, Content and Editorial Copywriting by Cocomilk

Creative Direction by Renee Arabia, Jan-Daniel Belmonte
Account Management by Meg Quimpo
Strategy by Jonah Garcia
Editorial by Jazz Adiviso, Thea Unson, Julia Benito
Graphic Design by Yas Liamco, Dianne Suarez, Luke Concepcion
Web Design by Cha Tan, Allysa Santos, Jan-Daniel Belmonte

Check out Home Buddies official website too!