The Central House is a new hospitality group offering urban travel experiences. Their objective was to position The Central House as a relevant actor in the travel and hospitality sector by creating a brand strategy and a visual identity which transmits the principles of sustainability, accessibility, local integration, and social conscience. With these objectives in mind, they counted on Erretres to undertake a branding project with important strategy and digital components. 

To launch the brand and position it as a relevant actor within the travel and hospitality industry, we created a benchmark and contrasted The Central House with other players to identify key elements and focus the project, and inspire the development of its identity, personality and voice. We created a brand idea and descriptor, defined the brand’s commitment (live the city), identified target audiences, and specified the brand’s core (centric location, avant-garde design, technology leaders, experiences) values (cosmopolitan, proactive, happy), principles (sustainability, accessibility, local integration, social conscience), and the strategic concept: “Real Urban Travel”.

To visualise the brand’s personality, we created a fresh visual identity which would attract the target audiences identified: a flexible logo which would adapt to both physical and digital touchpoints, and a system of icons that would accompany the key messages to create a more human brand. We chose the typeface Reckless, which is sophisticated yet modern, and Suisse, a very legible face. For the colour palette, we chose black and white as the main colours, with a fluorescent green as a highlight, and grey as complementary color.

The graphic system is based on a cross-section of the floors of a building. This way, The Central House is the container, the building in which things are happening, the content. The system adapts to different types of content, and can be applied to all digital and communication touchpoints.

To transmit The Central House’s concept and positioning, we developed a series of messages aligned with the brand’s personality. The graphic system also allowed us to combine the different elements (logo, messages, icons, layout, and photographs) across diverse contact points such as posters, menu, invitations, room keys, merchandising, exterior advertising, social media, and digital media.

For the launch of the new brand, we’ve designed numerous applications, from the corporate stationery to informative brochures, flyers, bags, room keys, cosmetics, signage, merchandise, etc., as well as other pieces that can be used for the incorporation of future services, like food packaging.

The main commercial contact point for The Central House is its website, in which customers can make a reservation and find out about their services. As The Central House is a living brand, not just a hotel but a place in which cool things happen, the website has a content page cantered on their customer’s experience. Called “Citynizers”, this area is also connected to the brand’s social media content. To structure The Central House’s digital context, we carried out a full UX process that ultimately led to the development and application of the brand’s UI. We also developed a social media editorial guide to direct more traffic to the new brand, transmit its personality, and launch the relationship with its audience.