Branding
The Challenge
The Royal Hawaiian Hotel wanted to create a hotel-within-a-hotel experience with a stylish renovation of its beach tower and commensurate service standard offering more personalized attention to guests. Anthology was tasked to develop a unique identity for the Royal Hawaiian’s beach tower, which would include a new name and logo mark. The name Mailani – Mai meaning “almost” and lani meaning “heaven” – was selected from a number of choices and defined as the brand promise: “To tread in a royal manner. Pampered. Indulged. Favored.” Drawing on the Royal Hawaiian’s longtime iconic color scheme, the pink torch ginger became the hotel’s primary symbol, featuring six ginger blossoms elegantly arranged in a circle reminiscent of ka la (the sun) and lei poo (a lei worn on the head).
The Solution
In Hawaii, the ginger's beauty and delicate scent have long been prized as tokens of honor and friendship. Therefore, we created a stylized illustration of the blossom to evoke the hospitality of the Mailani Beach Tower.
To create a clean and contemporary arrangement of the ginger graphic, the tam looked towards the traditional shapes whose kaona (poetic meaning) could be aligned with the Mailani Beach Tower. Reminiscent to shapes denoting wana (sea urchins), ka la (the sun) and lei poo (a lei worn on the head), the final icon shape denotes dawning, growth and leadership.