“Neonormal truly understands our brand — they’ve nailed the tone of who we are, and who we are not. We’re so excited about where they are taking our story.”
Making a new mark on the map for Royal Mail Hotel Dunkeld
Royal Mail Hotel \ Brand Identity
Results
The Challenge
Tucked away in the foothills of the Grampians, the Royal Mail Hotel has long held pride of place for the township of Dunkeld. But with extensive renovations, an expanded tourism and hospitality offer and the launch of the award-winning Wickens restaurant, it was time for a brand identity that reflected their new position and their ambitions for the future.
Our challenge was not in finding a worthwhile story to tell — the people and place already offered over 160 years of rich histories. Instead, our biggest task was distilling the Royal Mail Hotel’s many brand truths into a single, authentic identity – one that would make a distinctive mark on Australia’s hospitality and tourism scene.
The Solution
In our collaborative workshops with the RMH team, we found four through-lines in their story. Drawing inspiration from the people, food, wine and place at the heart of the Royal Mail experience, we highlighted these four threads with a simple, elegant brandmark – evoking handwriting, the furrows of a garden, the rows of a vineyard and a postmark. Along with a custom logotype redrawn from a vintage stamp — a nod to the historical postal route that gave the hotel its name — the four lines form a visual system that is confident, authentic and flexible.
As part of the project, we extended the brand to create an identity for Wickens, combining the ‘food’ furrow with head chef Robin Wickens’ signature. We also created a series of unique photo-micrography images — microscopic views of raw ingredients — to illustrate his passion for molecular gastronomy.
Next, we designed the mark for RMH Cellars – the largest private collection of wines in the Southern Hemisphere, at over 28,000 bottles – based on the ‘wine’ furrow.
With this storytelling approach, the new brand identity we created for the Royal Mail Hotel Dunkeld confidently communicates its rich history and values, while marking them for exciting things ahead.
What we did
- Brand Strategy
- Brand Identity Design
- Communications
- Signage Design
- Packaging Design
