Austrias highest mountain lake, the Weissensee in Carinthia, is a pearl of nature and a flagship community for sustainability and regionality. Yet the tourism is not as busy as around other Austrian resorts. That is because the local community has very strict rules for constructions to prevent the lake from being paved with hotels and restaurants.
Within that beautiful setting of lake Weissensee, Hotel Neusacherhof represents a new direction of hospitality: honouring the past with the possibilities of today.
Branding
Approach
Creating the branding for a reopening hotel, housed in one of the lakes's oldest buildings, meant to work in line with nature, history and the people on site.
When arriving at Weissensee, after going up dizzying serpentines, the mountains open the view on the beautiful lake. That lake has a soul that dominates the whole area. It can be wild and stormy, playful or calm and absolutely silent.
I wanted to include the lake in the logo in some way and combine it with something very traditional and man-made. In the final logo those two elements are represented simply by the choice of fonts.
Architect Günther Domenig designed the house in a way that it feels like the nature is invited to enter the interior. The ever present lake with it's broad colour palette, is reflected in every room and that approach is continued in the branding through the used colours and materials.
The dragon fly
In support of the logo, a simplistic dragon fly serves as a recognisable element to play around with, throughout the branding. The dragon fly is a common insect around Weissensee and it lives in perfect symbiosis with the lake. I wanted the symbol visually tie in with the logo, so I created from elements of the font used for "Weissensee".
Guidance System
To further ensure consistensy throughout all communication, I created a set of noticeable icons. They are used on the website, printed materials and even for the guidance system inside the hotel.
Content creation
I am very happy, that we won Marion and Raffael Payr as Photographers and Patrick Primus for Videography. During several shootings we shot a wide range of material in and around the hotel.
As art director and production manager, I created the briefings, determined the locations and schedules to make sure everything ran smoothly.
Due to the situation around the corona pandemic, the budget was tight. and timing was crucial. Shortly before the hotel was supposed to open in June, 2020 - we still didn't have any professional pictures to use for our marketing.
We desperately needed at least one good shot, overviewing the lake with it's beautiful white beaches. On our search for the perfect spot, the hotel owner and I ended up in a 30m treetop - the result was photo heading this article.
Website
The website is one of the most important touch points of a hotel nowadays. It's the only place where the hotel can present itself in all detail. It's also where the rooms can be booked and special offers are communicated. I was responsible for the whole information architecture and all screen designs along with project management for the development.
Marketing
We decided to concentrate on showing the pure beauty of lake Weissensee. In some perspectives the lake even looks like a beach in the Maldives - yet, it's just a place in Austria. By focussing on the lake itself, we're not forcing the hotel in the foreground - that is not it's style.
More coming soon.
My work included
Creative Direction
Branding
Graphic Design
Content Production Management
Photography
Editorial Design
Website Conception & Design
Project Partners
Project Developer: Hermann Rauter
Hotel Management: Almut Knaller
Architecture: Günther Domenig
Web Developer: Stefan Matar
Photography: Marion & Raffael Payr
Video Production: Patrick Primus, Dominic Kubisch
Consultation: Gabriele Taschler