chic&basic

A hotel chain that lives life playfully

chic&basic designs, creates and boosts conceptual hotels that offer a playful way of understanding life.

Drawn by their desire to grow, they asked us to align all the brand’s different elements under the same idea. The result was “Playful Stays”. An umbrella concept that acts as a fundamental pillar for all the hotels and cultural initiatives launched by chic&basic.

The brand strategy, the visual and verbal identity all revolve around this same concept. This allows chic&basic to create hotels based on different themes – from a tropical world to a 50’s movie- which are all “Playful Stays”.

Once the work was accomplished, the information was gathered in a practical brand book that collects and explains the essence of “Playful Stays” so that it can be reflected in everything they do.

A verbal tone that seeks to play intelligently

When we created the verbal identity for chic&basic, we played with words, concepts and double meanings. They became our playground, our place to experiment, a space free from formalisms but with plenty of room for surprises.

We did all this within the boundaries of respect. We always sought to give the conversations an intelligent turn out, to cause a reaction in people, to provide interesting data and to use reference to popular culture.

The brand’s most rebellious voice

One of the new elements defined, in addition to the verbal identity, was a corporate typeface that helped build the brand’s most rebellious side. Hence, all the word games found in headlines and all the brand messages are tinged with this rebellious attitude.

A provocative artistic tone for the pictures

With the intention of generating artistic expressions in themselves, creating powerful images that don't just show what appears in them, and establishing connections with people through intelligent boldness and irreverence.

Every player needs their playground

In order to arrange all the brand’s elements, we created a visual system full of meaning.

This allowed us to highlight the brand’s most playful content. It also worked as a starting point to create other brand elements that carry information such as posters, the website, etc.

A simple, memorable and flexible system that helps us build and enhance brand meanings while uniting and balancing all the visual and verbal elements of the brand’s identity.

A concept design to provoke

Due to COVID-19, the hotel industry suffered a severe setback. Chic&basic was forced to temporarily close all their hotels and adapt their communications and services to the different phases of the de-escalation.

To link all the communications made during the crisis, we designed ”Be contagious”. An umbrella concept that claims playfulness as a way of life and a form of rebellion.

Following this belief, we carried out several online campaigns and some in the actual hotels that encouraged people to spread the rebellious and positive spirit of chic&basic.