In the Heart of Africa at Chester Zoo, rises a brand new safari experience. The Reserve is more than a hotel. It’s a place of discovery. A world of memorable experiences, where the warmth of high-end luxury meets the exciting and unexpected. 

THE WAS

A new opportunity in UK hospitality, The Reserve is a high-end safari hotel from which all profits go directly to Chester Zoo’s global conservation projects. Made up of 51 savannah-inspired lodgings, it overlooks the giraffe habitat on the banks of a pristine lake. Making it an ideal retreat for couples, wedding parties and high-end business events.

It’s a place that feeds the soul, where no two stays—or days—are the same, and it needed a soulful brand to match. We got to work on an identity, exploring the world of wonder in front of us.

THE HOW

The visual identity subtly nods to the Chester Zoo brand work and takes inspiration from the hotel’s tactile interior design. We created a set of hand-painted patterns which interweave animal prints and natural textures, to evoke the rich, multilayered experience of The Reserve and the effortless symbiotic essence of nature itself. The deeper you look into each one, the more there is to discover.  

Inspired by the lake situated at the heart of these lodges, we used watercolors to create textured patterns which blended and morphed. We found this proved an incredibly natural way to paint—almost as unpredictable as nature itself—where we let ourselves get lost in the process of colors and textures interacting together.

The logo contains a hidden counter form inspired by a rhinoceros’ horn, to align with the same hidden horn in its parent brand: Chester Zoo. The wordmark flows, referencing the fluid sense of discovery embedded in the look and feel of the hotel. And the verbal identity adds a real feeling of belonging, whilst delighting the senses and making every guest experience sound personalised and bespoke.