The St Ives Hoteliers Association project was a great branding exercise and development process. The tricky part of this project was creating something that could work alongside previously established identities and also reflect St Ives as the modern seaside haven it is known for.

The early stages of this project were spent trying to think of other words we could use along side "stay" we went through many different words that represent St Ives and also spending time in one of the many quality hotels part of the association. Ultimately the most suited word was the one chosen by the client and so we started typographically incorporating the words "stay" and "St Ives" together. Whilst we were at our first meeting with the clients we were lucky enough to have some really nice weather, so we decided to use this opportunity to take some photographs that would help us with the project.

Our first concepts were trying to tie the 2 words together and turn them collectively into a symbol or badge that would be used as a seal of approval on the front of hotels associated within the group. The client had already stated to us that they would prefer a typographical approach and did not want to use any symbols or marks that are typical of tourism in Cornwall. This was quite a difficult process as typographically the words did not sit well together, we chose a very clean and modern typeface that reflects quality and also sophistication and set about creating the identity.

We considered the words and their meaning particularly the word "stay" and we explored the idea of incorporating symbols such as a suitcase and a do not disturb sign as common symbols associated with staying in hotels.

We decided to use the photography we shot at the first meeting to inspire the colour palette for the identity. Colour picking from these images gave us some clean and modern colours that are reflective of the location. The initial palette was 4 colours then extended to 8, giving us a broad range to work with in producing the final identity.

The client had also asked if we could look at the possibility of customising the identity so each type of hotel could be distinguished. We provided some concepts that reflect this through use of pattern and colour and give hotels within the group there own choice within a range.

We met with the client after the initial concepts and they were really pleased with the direction we had taken the concepts. After the meeting we developed the identity further by adding a further 4 swatches to the palette and also incorporated the colours into a website mock up and exterior wall mounted plaque as this will be the main display area for the identity.