Holbrook has brought a new approach to active adult living across the Southeast United States. One of the foundational amenities that set the brand apart is it’s full suite of food and beverage experiences. Crafted to be on par with what one would find around the world, these F&B outlets were developed to make a statement.
The first concept we developed for Holbrook was a full service bar brand. Its goal was to be a moody experience that evoked a sense of time and place. This is how we crafted it with Vigor.
Location
Year Completed
Team Size
Services
Challenge
A versatile bar brand born for evolution
Holbrook Decatur’s bar concept was to be the centerpiece of the entire active adult living brand experience. When we developed the full strategy for Holbrook, we identified the bar as a brand to be created on each property but altered to that property’s unique experience. For Decatur, the experience was to absorb influence from the era where most of America’s cities thrived.
When we began the process of developing the bar concept, leadership had already homed in on, and fell in love with, the name Prohibition. While this name successfully captured the essence of the experience, the legalities surrounding trademarking rendered it unable to be used.
Vigor was challenged with creating the framework for a versatile bar brand concept with a name malleable enough to take on fresh meanings from location to location. From that basis, we were to craft a unique identity for the Decatur property’s Maverick experience.
The work included on this moodboard is copyrighted by its specific owners.
Brand narrative
An era of optimism
While Americans weren’t the first to mix alcohols, the cocktail phenomenon was undoubtedly an American one, spurred on by Prohibition and speakeasies.
But while America was mired in the culture clash, politics, and gang violence of Prohibition, Europe was giving birth to the first truly global style which came to be known as Art Deco. “Deco” was actually more than a creative movement: it was a culture of profound optimism about mankind’s progress into the future. It embraced influences from wildly eclectic sources and galvanized them into a magnificent tapestry of art, sculpture, and architecture—all of which spread around the world, including to American cities.
When we decided to open a Prohibition-era bar, we decided to approach it with a global view that fuses the distinctly American craft of the cocktail with the philosophical optimism of Art Deco. The result isn’t so much a speakeasy as a global exposition of Parisian, American, and global creativity. In short, a cocktail of the best parts of humanity at one of our most exciting times
in history.
Brand personality
Evoking and communicating a maverick attitude
Maverick’s patron of focus was a group we called Soaring Eagles. This group served as the core of the Holbrook brand’s focus as well.
Soaring Eagles were attracted to brands that evoked their sense of the world and their approach to life. For Maverick, that meant evoking and communicating a lively, guiding, and virtuosic personality.
Those traits served to direct the creative approach to the brand’s identity spearheaded by an Art Deco-inspired sun icon. The sun serves as a symbol of life and vivacity as well as a guiding star.
We coupled the star mark with a classic typeface that pushed the boundaries of letterforms and the relationships of those forms. This gave the Maverick brand’s visual identity a foundation for expanding the language across a full suite of touchpoints.
ABOVE / Color palette for the brand inspired by a mystical pattern evocative of a maverick personality.
Telling the brand story
Mavericks exist everywhere and in everyone
The bar’s brand identity was built and expanded into multiple touchpoints. Each one built on the story where the other had left off.
A suite of postcards featuring custom shot photography of mavericks from around the world were printed and used with brass clips to serve as chit presenters. The duotone effect used on the photographs coupled with classic graphic elements to create a sense of virtuosity and liveliness that felt of many eras.
Menus and ancillary items like coasters and matchboxes all combined to create a fully realized brand experience that tapped the brand’s personality perfectly.
There are lots of bars in Decatur that serve top-notch cocktails. But our passion is what sets us apart. Every conversation, every cocktail, and every piece of decor work together to create an experience where our Patron can transition from their daily rhythms to a place of memorable adventure.
– Al Holbrook, President
