REBRANDING A MOROCCAN LANDMARK
A botanical garden in the heart of the Marrakech, the Majorelle Garden was created by Jacques Majorelle over the course of 40 years until the mid-1900s. It fell into disrepair shortly after his divorce and would stay that way until its restoration by Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé in the 80s.
Today, the garden stands as a tourist attraction that houses two museums: the Berber Museum and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum.
On the left, a collage of the different architectural motifs taken from the Majorelle Garden. On the right, the chosen color palette for this identity.
A FOUR-IN-ONE SPECIAL
The beauty of Marrakech is its people. Home to four different languages (French, Arabic, Tifinagh and English), the logo of the Majorelle Garden needs to be reinvented so that it equally represents all four groups.
Along with a renovated logo, an overall system will be created and applied throughout the garden.
Digital sketches of the architecture within the Majorelle Garden and its translation to a logo.
FROM THE PHYSICAL TO THE DIGITAL
This identity could not just exist on its own. It needed to be a representation of the already existing garden and its reputation. In order to achieve this cohesiveness, I drew from the architecture that the garden is so well known for.
Many architectural motifs existed throughout the garden. I noted the consistent use of round arches, the concentric rectangles that decorated the doors, the triangles that framed the fountain, and the checkered tiles that followed the pathways. I began to sketch with the idea to combine four elements into one logo.
I picked a color palette based on the colors used throughout the garden. The teal of the doors, arches, and window grates, the orange of the post and curtains, the yellow decor accents, and the classic Majorelle Blue.
The type choices of English Grotesque for the French and English logotypes, Greycliff Arabic for the Arabic logotype, and a hand-lettered Tifinagh to tie both together.
YOU GET A TYPEFACE! YOU GET A TYPEFACE!
It was very important to me that all the type used throughout the system worked well with each other. But it is rare that one typeface houses the Latin characters, Arabic characters, and Tifinagh characters. Instead, I was tasked with creating a set of three typefaces to support all the languages.
The English Grotesque and Greycliff Arabic play off each other really well. The expanded forms of English Grotesque seem to match Arabic's word format while the geometric interpretation of the Arabic language in Greycliff Arabic lend itself to mesh nicely with the latin letters within English Grotesque.
Most Tifinagh typefaces tended to have contrast within its letterforms. They also were not as geometric as the other two typefaces. To combat this I decided to create my own hand-lettered Tifinagh that would match both styles.
From left to right, top to bottom: the first, second, and third iteration of the logo, with pattern exploration
for the third iteration.
for the third iteration.
RESPECTING A CULTURE
It is important to note that in Muslim culture, there should be no representation of living things. My first and second iterations included an abstracted person, to indicate and reference the garden's visitors. While not done with malice, the inclusion of such an icon is disrespectful to the community that surrounds the Majorelle Garden in Morocco.
Obviously, changes had to be made. The third iteration clearly communicated the architectural motifs and could be split into four icons without infringing on anyone's beliefs.
On the left, each language's logo with its assigned color. On the right, the combined overall logo for the garden with its respective influences noted.
ALL TOGETHER NOW
One of the concepts I wanted to showcase most when creating this logo was that separate identities can come together to create one identity all its own. That's what the four separate logos do. They each provide part of themselves to create on overall logo for the garden that doesn't diminish each contribution in order to create a whole.
From left to right: the identity system as applied on set of ID cards, banners and tickets.
ONE THING TO ANOTHER
When it came to the application of the identity system it was really important that all four languages were utilized. It is for this reason that there are three variations for the ID badges and four for the banners and tickets.
I wanted to make sure that each employee that worked there had an accurate representation of their name. They might have different names in each language, but it is my belief that each name should be celebrated. That is why each ID card has the main language of the employee as well as their secondary languages present.
For the banners, I employed a technique in which four banners existed by a connecting color block pattern across the background. This technique was also utilized in the ID badges. This is, again, to promote individuality while still celebrating the collective.
The tickets honor each identity through the colors while still signifying the languages in the actual text.