Place branding for Gumlokt
Project year
2017
Team
Urbanica
Project role
Creator of Gumlokt place brand
Client
«Alashara» fund established for promotion of thriving of Abaza-Abkhazian ethos
Challenge
To create a recognizable, modern place brand with heritage. The main project was aimed at creating and developing a travel destination in Karachaevo Cherkesia, rooted in local history and identity, with focus on nature but suited for all kinds of tourists and travelers.
Workflow
I've started with fully inspecting the project and talking to my collegues at Urbanica who created it, researched the character of the place, its distinctive features and community.

After all this, it became clear that three major pillars of the brand will be: searching for something new, new knowledge, perception of place/things. Based on this the concept arised with its main slogan «Gumlokt resort. Find it. Discover it. Feel it.» — which represents uniqueness, identity, search of your own self and new places, breathtaking sights, mountains, legends.

After that I've worked out a number of sub-slogans for posters, taking ideas from the main one and describing hte character of the place, such as: «Find yourself», «Learn the legend», «Find harmony» and others. Posters are made out of photographs by Urbanica collegue, showing the sights of Gumlokt. You can see them below.
This was the moment when I started to see wayfinding/navigation in literal and metaphorical sense as the main brand axis — finding sights and artefacts, learning about history, search for your self, finding friends, finding meanings.

Based on this concept I have created a logo, where four trees act as mian entrance to the place and Gumlokt Resort written in Russian form a navigation stella with arrows on its sides.
Branding logo
On all stages of the project I've tested my concepts, slogans and logos with collegues that created the main project. I was also previously engaged in the project, making a case study for various parts of the future resort.
Outcome
The concept is based on all distinctive feautures of the place: history, culture, legends, sights, untouched nature, potential for walking tours, etc.

The final stage of the projects was a presentation of all materials made, incuding posters, logo and slogans, with recommendations on physical appearance and guides for wayfinding, creation of walking paths and routes (case study). The client approved this branding concept.
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