Opening next to the Old Church Park in 2018, Hotel St. George redefined Finland’s luxury hotel landscape. Designing the hotel’s visual identity for was an enormous task involving applications from packaging and signage to publications both digital and printed.
The design process coincided with a pivot in the hotel’s overall concept from a traditional grand hôtel to a wholly new take on luxury, emphasising wellbeing, serenity and art, yet does not forget the groundwork of a five-star hotel experience. The hotel is the second Finnish member of Design Hotels and was promoted as one of the group’s five top new entrants in 2018.
The project encompassed a vast variety of applications from the logo and illustrations to the website and signage with the total number of separate items reaching over 80. By meticulously designing all items from scratch, a thoroughly consistent guest experience could be ensured.
Hotel St. George commands a prime location next to Old Church Park. This photo by Mikkö Ryhänen, others by Tiiu Kaitalo.Loafs of bread from St. George Bakery.Vertical signage facing the city centre. Photo by Mikko Ryhänen.To mark the hotel’s launch, a broadsheet supplement was delivered with Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s major daily.A selection of coloured papers was used for all print items.One of the hotel’s defining features is Ai Weiwei’s majestic sculpture Tianwu (‘heavenly creature’), which greets guests in the entrance lobby. The E’s in the logo reference accordingly the Chinese bagua trigram for heaven, Qian. The illustration is by Luc Journot, whose work was used extensively in the hotel’s initial marketing.Subtle embossing on menu covers.Signage had to be carefully considered because the hotel comprises two buildings resulting in a complicated layout.The scale of applications ranged from façade signage to name tags.
