Mirissa's coolest space comes alive

#BrandIdentity #BrandStrategy #Graphic Design

Background

Asaya Resorts was founded with a singular vision in mind—craft unique, world-class hospitality experiences for niche customers such as global digital nomads and C-suite executives by leveraging Sri Lanka’s natural beauty and heritage of healing. In doing so, the company wishes to see Sri Lanka viewed alongside innovative luxury hospitality concepts in destinations such as Bali, Kyoto, and Nepal.

Currently under construction are two distinct properties in Mirissa, a coastal town in southern Sri Lanka, and in Matale, a town surrounded by the Knuckles mountain range in central Sri Lanka. Both resorts have very distinctive points of differentiation even from each other.

The Brief

Asaya Resorts acknowledged that standing out from its competitors, while tough, would be paramount to its success in a competitive market. It also knew that it had to compete at a global scale in order to attract customers away from competing destinations which are also better marketed at a national level.

We were given the challenge of crafting separate visual identities for both properties, draw up plans for the pre-opening, launch, and post-launch periods. These plans had to cover not merely marketing activities, but also experiential aspects such as the in-house guest experience, F&B menu optimizations, and community events.

The Brand as the competitive moat

We believe that a well thought out brand architecture can be an asset of immense value. While the name ‘Asaya’ was something we had to work with, defining a naming convention where each new resort could be christened easily by appending a word such as ‘sands’ or ‘summit’ was one of our first accomplishments.

We consciously opted to use hand drawn sketches in the visual identity of one resort in keeping with its ambiance, architectural style, and the character of its neighborhood. Given how visual identities exist on a variety of media in this day and age, we were careful to ensure that all sketches were perfectly adaptable to print, web, or mobile and across a multitude of touchpoints such as room cards, menus, in-room amenities etc.

An identity as unique as Asaya

Emotions of sandy beaches and wind-in-your-hair moments were invoked through a warm color palette consisting of maroons and oranges, while woody tones were chosen for the property in the hills. We also paid careful attention to how materials and textures can be made use of as the sense of touch plays a flanking role in how the human brain perceives and assigns various traits to an object.

The result was a beautiful and elegant identity easily adaptable to any media, digital, print, or otherwise.

A community hotspot

Asaya Resorts wishes for both its properties to be integral parts of the community around them. For the property in Mirissa, this means becoming a vibrant hotspot for local artisans, good food, music, and a cozy space for some respite from the scorching heat of the day. Our launch plans take this into consideration, and the resorts will play host to a wide range of curated events and experiences meant to delight the soul and the body. We are also positioning the town of Mirissa itself as the coolest suburb of the south by shining a light on its natural beauty, warm hospitality, and interesting people.  

Conclusion

For all the great work completed so far, we are just getting started with Asaya Resorts. As a boutique outfit focused on transforming our partners and elevating them to greater heights, our blueprints for this project contain a host of novel initiatives which we will roll out in the months to come. And which we are not at liberty to disclose right now for obvious reasons.

All we can ask from you, is to watch this space.