The Halden Hotel
Our work with The Halden Hotel began with a deep-dive into the client’s intention, values, and vision. Through our brand questionnaire, we invited the client to articulate not just what they do, but how they want their guests to feel and more importantly, how they want to be remembered.
The tone of the responses was immediate and consistent. The client described the hotel as “a place to be paused, tucked away in Hampstead” and also supplied multiple brand nouns to aid our design process. Some of these were, hound, hearth, comfort, luxury, relaxation and silence. Halden’s detailed responses to the questionnaire fuelled every design decision throughout the creative process.
From the start, the name “The Halden Hotel” evoked weight, stillness, and heritage. The client explained that “Halden” was chosen because it felt timeless and could belong to a person, a place, or a piece of literature. This defintion allowed us to root the visual identity in story rather than literal location.
A pivotal point came from a specific brand noun in the questionnaire; hound. The Halden is Norwegian breed of hunting dog, and considering hunting can be associated with the higher class in England, it was necessary to explore this direction for the logo. The logo we designed shows an obedient hound, sitting as opposed to standing, to further communicate the relaxation The Halden Hotel aims to evoke. The sketched/engraved icon echoes the attention to detail HH has with their hotel.
The colour palette was drawn directly from the brand’s emphasis on atmosphere over ornament. We retained a deep navy as the primary tone, evoking nightfall, storytelling and timelessness. This was paired with soft ivory and charcoal to offer contrast without starkness. The final accent tone, a rich, saddle brown was to evoke comfort and familiarity and referenced heritage materials; wood, leather, bed to name a few.
Due to the Halden Hound relating back to Norway, it was only right to slant the bridge in the ‘A’. This relates to the ancient letterforms used in Scandinavia; where slanted letters were used in their general language.
The final brand identity for The Halden Hotel was not built around logos or colours, it was shaped by tone, texture, and emotion. The client’s thoughtful, restrained answers provided a clear direction for the brand. They weren’t interested in trend or volume but instead presence, pacing and subtlety. Every design choice honoured that vision.