A beach club for a city that did not have one.
W Hotels asked me to create the identity for their new beachfront project in Barcelona: SALT, a restaurant, beach club and event space on the sand below the W. I worked closely with the interior studio Isabel López Vilalta on materials and design approach, so the brand and the room were designed as one thing.
The strongest identities are decided in the experience, not the logo.
The challenge
Barcelona is a beach city without a true beach club culture. SALT had to invent the category locally while carrying two identities at once: the Californian ease the concept demanded, and the unmistakable codes of W. Get it wrong in either direction and it becomes a hotel restaurant with sand outside.
What I did
Created the full identity: name treatment, logo, menus, signage, promotional material and interior brand details.
Worked side by side with Isabel López Vilalta's studio so typography, materials and space spoke one language: the brand was designed into the architecture, not applied onto it.
Set the visual codes and strategy for how SALT would live in promotion, on the beach and inside the W ecosystem.
Hospitality identities fail when the brand book and the interior are designed by people who never meet. This one worked because the graphic and the physical were one decision.
About the company
W Hotels
W Hotels is Marriott International's design led luxury lifestyle brand. W Barcelona, the sail shaped landmark on the city's waterfront, is one of the brand's flagship properties in Europe.
- Hospitality
- Brand identity, application, signage, collateral, interior details
- Live
- BRAND AND IDENTITY