Hotel and hospitality branding
From Dubai, I design brands for hotels, restaurants and heritage destinations, then the campaigns, launches and digital channels that fill the rooms and the tables.
The work
IHG Dubai Festival City. I was the cluster graphic designer for InterContinental Hotels Group at Dubai Festival City, across five hotel properties and sixteen restaurants and bars. For two and a half years I led the identity and campaign work, brought the hotels under one visual language, launched new venues and food and beverage concepts, and designed the sub-brands that sit under the InterContinental name. The work won the IHG AMEA Best Graphic Designer Award.
Queen Elizabeth 2. As Design and Digital Marketing Manager, I was the creative lead for the ocean liner that became a floating hotel at Port Rashid. I directed the design, art direction and photography, and ran the digital marketing across search, email, social and the app. The audience grew to more than 50,000 in eight months, and the website passed a million visits in its first year.
What I take on
- Brand identity for a hotel, a group of hotels or a single venue, including sub-brands that still belong to the parent.
- Concept launches for restaurants, bars and new venues.
- Campaigns across print, social, email and landing pages.
- Art direction and photography of rooms, food and the guest experience.
- Websites and digital marketing that turn interest into direct bookings.
How I think about it
A hotel group with many properties needs one language, not one look. Each venue keeps its own character, and the guest still knows whose house they are in.
Heritage is an asset only when it feels alive. On the QE2 the job was to honour the ship’s past while giving people a reason to visit now.
I design the brand and the channels it lives in as one system, so the identity, the campaigns and the booking path behave as one thing rather than three handoffs.