The Bora Bora airport is 20 minutes away by boat. Repeat… by boat! The renovation mockups were amazing. The latest videos are breathtaking. The actual experience may be one of the most sublime moments of your life.

The 115-key resort, formerly known as Hilton Bora Bora Nui Resort & Spa, underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation and rebranded as Conrad Bora Bora Nui, in early April 2017. Located on an island rooted in Tahitian history and legend, Conrad Bora Bora Nui features garden villas and overwater pool villas. The sumptuous two-story presidential overwater villas have entertained some of Hollywood’s most famous celebrities.
Guest amenities include three restaurants, three hotel bars, an infinity pool, complimentary water sports equipment, mini-golf, and a private island known as Motu Tapu accessible by boat. The relaxing Hina Spa is situated at the very peak of the black lava rock hillside, providing spectacular panoramic views of the resort’s surrounding scenery.

We were lucky enough to design logos for five of their on site properties:

Hina Spa

Inspired by the beautiful location and legends of the goddess Hina, we scoured the internet and fell in love with the stories about this amazing female warrior. From Polynesian mythology to anime, to references of the deity in contemporary music and literature, the goddess Hina was a complex divine archetype. One enduring theme is that she represented the phases of life and renewal, making her a perfect fit for the namesake of the spa.

After studying the renderings, we noticed the architectural lines were very clean and sleek, so our design options needed to reflect that aesthetic. Our first pass included the elements of the mythology of Hina. The female figure, the Banyan tree and leaves, rocks and the moon were elements we explored. After client feedback and revisions, the moon was decidedly the key element to focus on. Moving from there on to color studies, it was agreed to match the color palette of the spa itself, which was enveloped in warm browns, creams and tans.

Iriatai

One of the resort’s signature restaurants is the Classic French brasserie and wine bar, Iriatai.  The main challenge we faced designing this logo, was the directive from the client to communicate the breathtaking view of Bora Bora’s main island with its recognizable mountain, Mount Otemanu, in the most upscale and tasteful way. We solved this uniquely, by representing the mountain’s outline traversing the word Iriatai.

Banyan

The Chinese restaurant Banyan takes inspiration from multiple regions of China, Canton, Fujian, the city of Ningbo and the island of Hainan. An enormous fabled banyan tree located at the front entrance of the restaurant inspired the hand drawn Chinese characters of our logo, which translates to “banyan tree.” According to Polynesian legends, the symbolic tree represents the leaves from the moon, a reference to the goddess Hina sending gifts to the earth.

Tamure

Tamure Beach Grill, featuring an open-air exhibition kitchen and stone pizza oven, takes “feet in the sand” casual beachside dining to another level. Tamure is a form of dance in Tahiti and our logo design was inspired by the rhythmic movements of this classical dance form along with the beautiful colors of the lagoon that we represented with a watercolor gradient.

Tarava

One get can’t more relaxed than the pairing of the words “pool” and “bar” in one sentence. Tarava, the swim up Pool Bar, is the last logo that we designed for their grand opening in April. The literal translation of Tarava is “traditional song/chant” however, the client did not want to refer to anything musical in the logo design. Our color palette was inspired by the local fresh fruit cocktails that are served, along with the color of all the surrounding waters.

It was a true privilege and honor to have worked with such a beautiful resort. Using this opportunity to learn about the Polynesian culture and traditions was an added bonus and contributed greatly to the success of our logo designs. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to travel to the islands to view our work in person, but it is at the top of all of our bucket lists to someday visit!

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