Leisure & Hospitality: An Immersive Customer Experience
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The leisure and hospitality sector is incredibly dynamic, covering all kinds of venues from hotels and restaurants to amusement parks, holiday resorts and sports centres.
Without even realising, signage plays a huge part in our experiences at these venues. Not only do signs guide and inform visitors, but they also shape the environment and create an immersive experience from the get-go.
Effective signage in these settings is crucial to the overall customer experience, from the entrance through to the exit.
Branding & Consistency
Consistency is key across any brand’s estate. The uniform use of colours, fonts, and logos across all signage is crucial to reinforcing a brand’s identity and creating a cohesive visual experience.
For example, a successful hotel signage scheme will welcome and immerse customers into an environment that encompasses the brand's vision. Whether that is a stylish boutique hotel or a modern hotel franchise, the signage will reflect the style and personality of the brand throughout the customer journey, from the reception area to the wayfinding scheme.
Wayfinding
Leisure and hospitality facilities can be vast and complex, making it easy for visitors to get lost and disorientated. An often overlooked element of signage, wayfinding allows customers to navigate their way seamlessly through these venues.
As well as fulfilling its functional role by providing directional instructions, well-designed wayfinding can enhance the aesthetics of the environment and foster a positive experience through a strong brand identity.
Good signage reduces confusion and frustration. Excellent signage reduces confusion while also ensuring consistency and immersing visitors in a branded experience. Our in-house design studio at Gateshead is ideally placed to design wayfinding schemes for clients and fully understand the art of navigation design, as they are highly experienced in translating these spaces from concept to completion.
Enhancing Visitor Experience
Many brands are now starting to differentiate themselves by offering something unique with the way they design their property and its signage. Instead of focusing solely on function, brands are implementing features that add a touch of personalisation and character to transform their environment into something memorable. The hotel reception, for example, gives the first impression for guests and sets the tone for the rest of their stay. Crafting the artistic vision and detail of this space is crucial in making a stay unforgettable, and ultimately, in encouraging return visits.
From vibrant murals and neon lettering to immersive wayfinding schemes or interactive screens, these assets are so effective in creating an inviting atmosphere and reflecting a brand’s messaging.
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Astley’s Expertise
In February of 2024, Astley were awarded Gold for Rollout of the Year at the Sign & Wrap Awards for our work on Leonardo Hotels. This extensive program encompassed the complete rebranding of 30 hotels across the UK from the Jurys Inn brand to Leonardo Hotels.
This project highlighted the importance of ensuring brand consistency across each hotel and across various substrates in order to achieve a cohesive and solid branded estate.
It was vital that the proposed designs were sympathetic to the style of the architecture and surroundings, but also that they didn’t stray too far from the old branding. It was also crucial to ensure colour matching across multiple substrates, such as acrylic, print and powdercoating. Prototyping was therefore an essential stage of this design process as it allowed us to support Leonardo’s with their rebrand, from our sample showroom to the final outcome.
At Astley, we are passionate about providing a thorough and highly detailed service. Our highly efficient production services are complimented by our in-house design and creative services, offering clients an additional resource to conceptualise, plan and design signage programmes.
Specialising in design, fabrication, print and digital, we continue to test the limits of what signage can really be, from the hospitality sector and beyond.
To learn more about how we can help with your branding solutions, click here.
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