The Den: Strengthening brand identity through collaterals
VISUAL DESIGN EXTENSION | COLLATERAL DESIGN | HOSPITALITY
The Den is a luxury business hotel amidst the IT parks and business district of Bengaluru, India. It is the first major investment in India by the Israeli hotel chain, The Dan Hotels. Tata Elxsi was approached to extend the visual design system and develop the marketing and operational collaterals for the property. The branding had already been developed my McCANN.
CLIENT: The DAN Hotels, Bengaluru, India
(Tata Elxsi Limited)
YEAR: 2016
MY ROLE: Concept development, Collateral design,
TOOLS: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Powerpoint
The brand Identity was developed by McCANN. The brand is positioned as an urban oasis at the heart of which is authentic hospitality and a philosophy to do what you want do with comfort, panache and just a little edge.
Finding Opportunity
The original design system proposed focusing on reinforcing the brand through the visual design for the collaterals; this is a good strategy for a new brand to pursue.
However, we also believed that for a hotel crafted for the modern business travelers, the collaterals would provide a great opportunity to sneak a moment with its busy patrons.
Consumer-facing collaterals make for a great touchpoint. Consumers are pleasantly surprised to find bits of conversations where they least expect it and these moments help to build a relationship with the brand.
So, when the time came for us to present our first round of designs. We proposed additional concepts that highlighted the various ways in which the collaterals could be used as powerful touch points than just being a brand reinforcer. The final designs was a combination of these two concepts proposed.
Concept 1: For this concept, in addition to the brand elements, we decided to use copy that was conversational, friendly, inspiring and sometimes quirky to create an engaging point of interaction between the service and its consumers. Small bits of conversation that could connect with the millennial globetrotters.
Concept 2: While the first concept used copy in addition to the brand elements, the second concept played with the brand elements to create a visual story that narrated the ideology at the core of the brand. The idea was to translate the modern, young, dynamic values of the brand visually, as a part of its day to day collaterals so that it can be told and re-told.
Note: This project was carried on further by my colleagues at Tata Elxsi Limited, Bangalore.