Response to the 2017 D&AD New Blood brief for Crowne Plaza on the next generation of business travellers.
We ran around to hotels and offices around Cape Town interviewing both hotel managers, and travellers. Travelling is seen as a luxury, with everything being convenient and stream lined with online bookings and check ins - that is until you get to the hotel. Hotels still function more or less the same way they did a 100 years ago and have only recently started to include free wifi with a stay. So things need to change for sure.
Developing an illustration style for the hotel
The hotel will need a way to speak to it's clients in a fun way. So setting a illustration style seems to be the easiest and most flexible solution. Doing so also helped us create an explainer video for the hotel.
The hotel branding
Drawing inspiration from Wes Anderson we created a new hotel identity to pair with the new hotel experience. The challenge was making something slick yet playful, ornamental yet minimal.
Looking back, this project took the most out of us. This was our first time taking on a brief from D&AD New Blood. We had time, we wanted to give it our all, and we might just have done too much. We had a explainer video that tried to make the hotel concept about a seamless experience, but it was more of a tech solution than an answer on getting more young business travellers to visit the Crowne Plaza. And then we ended up doing a rebrand as well. It still feels very messy.
Despite that, this project was a big learning opportunity for us. We learned new skills from basic animation, to developing a illustration style, and doing our first branding studio shoot.
fin
