March 2020 |
Naming and branding a new boutique hotel in the region
With vast competition in the hotel and hospitality industry in the Balkan region, BENELUX desired a distinct and cultured oriented visual identity. Benelux sits in the soul of Peja (Kosovo), with a beautiful location and seasonal weather to accommodate the location. This indicated that this hotel was going to be special only with the correct design infrastructure set in place.
The name BENELUX, is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The team had a complex identity to unfold, 3 nations meant that the designer had to develop a logo that had coherence with that number. The research was carried out by TROKIT and with the name ‘BENELUX’ selected, the team set out to build on the country of origin from each of the 3 BENELUX nations.
The foundation was a Windmill, through being of the many features that are seen in the fertile lands of the Netherlands, the Windmill sets the style and spirit that the BENELUX states represent. Where in most of the lands in which Windmills are situated Tulips can be found, the flourishing shape of the Tulip allowed the designers to extract this shape and fused them into the Windmill representation and with 3 nations in mind, it was only fitting to have three Tulip symbols that combine to create the logo.
As for the colours of the symbol, TROKIT decided to adapt the colours of the flags of each of the states but with some minor alterations and improvements. They did this through different tones and shades to maintain simplicity and convenience to the human eye.
What followed was an exhibition of prints and mockups for the boutique hotel, using the tulip symbol and creating an entire gallery of material that satisfied not only BENELUX but their future customers.
They were well and truly set for the future.
