A guest at a small hotel meets the brand long before they meet the room. They see it on a booking site, in a confirmation email, maybe on a sign by the road. But the first time they hold it is at the front desk, when someone puts a key in their hand.
What a key can do
A plastic card does its job and is forgotten. A heavy brass key on a leather fob is noticed, photographed and talked about. It tells a guest, before they have walked upstairs, what kind of place this is.
For Casa Lume, we started with the key and worked outwards:
- The fob is saddle leather, with the name pressed in and the edges stitched by hand.
- The door hanger is the same terracotta as the house's shutters.
- The breakfast menu is printed each morning on a board, so it is always today's.
Why it matters online
Guests share what they hold. The key turned up in photographs more than the sea did, and every one of those photographs carried the name.
We did not design a logo for Rui. We designed the things his guests hold.
