Be Prague is a start up service to provide assistance to travellers arriving in Prague who have booked accommodation through Booking.com, Airbnb, and other similar services. It is also an administrative service for landlords and renters regarding, keys, cleaning and transportation. The service begins the from the moment a traveler leaves the baggage claim at the airport where there will be a bay where travellers can receive numerous services: they can pick up keys to accommodations they have arranged online, get detailed directions, maps, arrange transportation, and get quick access to mobil wifi and other communications services. This will eventually include a smartphone app.

BRIEF

Be Prague wanted consultation on their corporate identity. They had a logo, but were unsure how well it communicated their vision. They wanted us to give it a facelift and create a logo manual. They also wanted a us to create the visuals for their strategy: This tourist bay is a comfortable and inviting home away from home, where the stress is taken out of accommodation and travel arrangements. It needed to have visual or cultural elements from Prague.

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

The logo was in a standard font, and the paper airplane icon was outside and facing away, which decreased the coherence of the logo. The bay, or service stand, in the airport needed to be soft and inviting for tired travellers with tired eyes.  It needed to be instantly differentiated from, and more inviting than, the other sharp and bright stands for rental cars, currency change and accommodation.

OUR SOLUTION

For the logo, we kept their paper airplane concept for its many related connotations, but turned it around and incorporated it more closely into the body of the logo flying forward, and added the distinctive swoop. We crafted the “be” undigitally to soften the logo and give it more character and font differentiation. For the eyes of tired travellers, we included only what was essential to the message. We created simple, homey line drawings and a softer tone of yellow, used sparingly. A bookshelf, a lamp, a comfortable chair, some slippers on the floor, and, too give it just a bit of that Prague mystery, Franz Kafka peeking in the window.

SUSTAINABILITY

Though this was not directly a project described in terms of sustainability, the central idea is in line with circular economic principles and has elements of waste reduction: Less traveling for keys and less searching for addresses cuts down on carbon footprint; and as this service is primarily web-based, there is reduction in paper waste from fliers and other print materials.

CLIENT RELATIONSHIP

Our relationship with this client was very positive. Their openness to new ideas freed up our creativity and helped us explore and open up new opportunities and innovation, that will continue as their start up evolves.