CONTEXT AND BRIEF
A 4-star Verona hotel with a 4.7 guest score and branding that looked like every other hotel on the street.
La Casa degli Angeli is a 4-star boutique hotel in Verona's historic centre. 12 rooms in a restored 18th-century building. Guest satisfaction averaging 4.7 out of 5. Premium pricing. The kind of place that earns its reputation entirely through the experience it delivers, not through how it looks.
The visual identity hadn't kept up. A generic script font, an angel illustration, three different logo variations across room amenities. The website used different fonts than the printed collateral. Guests were describing the experience as a "peaceful oasis" and a "hidden gem", and then handing over a business card that looked like it came from a souvenir shop. The owner knew it. The brief was to close the gap between what the hotel actually was and what it looked like.
Client
La Casa degli Angeli
Industry
Hospitality - B2C
Year
2025
Role
Brand Identity Designer
Duration
2.5 months
PROBLEM DEFINITION
200+ guest reviews across Booking.com, TripAdvisor, and Google told a consistent story. 52% used words like "felt like home" and "personal service." 43% mentioned "peaceful" or "tranquil." Not one review used "grand," "opulent," or "lavish." Guests were paying for intimacy and serenity, not status.
The old signage made that gap impossible to ignore. Painted cherubs, multicoloured lettering, flower decorations, "Come in if you are lucky." Charming in its own way, but nothing about it said 4-star boutique hotel in a restored 18th-century building. A guest paying €200 a night would see that sign before they saw the room, and start expecting less before they'd even checked in. The mismatch wasn't just cosmetic. It was costing the hotel the first impression it had already earned.
PROCESS AND EXPLORATION
The early explorations went everywhere. Wing icons, angel marks, letterform combinations, script versus serif. The usual gravity of a hospitality brief pulling toward ornamentation. Every direction that leaned into the symbolic ended up looking like the 14 other hotels on the same street already did.
The turning point was stripping everything back. No icon, no illustration, no crest. Just the name, set in a typeface refined enough to carry the weight on its own. A single small star detail as the only celestial reference, subtle enough to feel like a considered choice rather than a literal translation of the hotel's name.
The positioning became restraint as luxury. Every visual decision flowed from that. The market was shouting history through baroque excess. La Casa degli Angeli would communicate confidence through what it left out.
Chose typography as the sole brand vehicle over any symbolic mark. In a market saturated with angel illustrations and hotel crests, having nothing but a beautifully crafted logotype became the differentiator.
200+ guest reviews across Booking.com, TripAdvisor, and Google told a consistent story. 52% used words like "felt like home" and "personal service." 43% mentioned "peaceful" or "tranquil." Not one review used "grand," "opulent," or "lavish." Guests were paying for intimacy and serenity, not status.
The old signage made that gap impossible to ignore. Painted cherubs, multicoloured lettering, flower decorations, "Come in if you are lucky." Charming in its own way, but nothing about it said 4-star boutique hotel in a restored 18th-century building. A guest paying €200 a night would see that sign before they saw the room, and start expecting less before they'd even checked in. The mismatch wasn't just cosmetic. It was costing the hotel the first impression it had already earned.
A complete visual identity built on a single principle: restraint as luxury. Customized Cormorant Garamont logotype with a single five-pointed star detail. A palette of warm ivory, deep charcoal, cerulean, and antique gold — everything muted, nothing competing. Applied across stationery, amenity packaging, brass signage, and digital templates. An identity that finally matched what guests had been saying about the place for years.
Direct bookings YoY (34% → 44% of total)
+28%
Average nightly rate increase (€285 → €320)
+€35
Instagram engagement rate (2.1% → 4.3%)
2.1×
