House Of Cocktails is a cocktail bar from Byblos, Lebanon that turns a night out into a contemporary, classy experience.
Behind the brand’s logo and branding is Mink, a marketing agency that prides itself with passion, transparency and ultimately, nurturing experience infused in their creative solutions.
As the agency states:
“We believe that all of our clients are part of our team.”
This client-oriented philosophy is most evidently embodied in the House Of Cocktails’ logo design. Mink incorporates subtle evocation of the brand’s rich local tradition and contemporary bar culture, resulting in both a unique brand image and its market position.
The monogram-based logo is made out of “H”, “O” and “C”, the acronym of the brand’s name.
This clever letter amalgamation creates a sleek, minimal cocktail glass that grabs visitors’ attention right from the get-go and reveals the classy essence of the brand.
The logo checks all the contemporary design practices that dictate simplicity and minimalism.
House of Cocktails’ logo design is inspired by the very name itself. However, its brand identity doesn’t end with the logo.
Located in the heart of the historic city of Byblos, the oldest inhabited city in the world, the cocktail bar unifies modern design trends and ancient history into a robust foundation.
Byblos became famous during the Hellenistic period (330-64 BCE) for its ample production of papyrus. Once the region was conquered by Romans, it became a major colony in the Eastern Mediterranean for centuries to come.
The House of Cocktails logo design gives this historic background a unique twist. Besides evoking the above-mentioned cocktail glass, the monogram calls to mind the ancient symbols, akin to the Phoenician alphabet, or Lebanon’s traditional decorative pattern.
The abbreviation “HOC”, its clever vertical positioning and the tagline “where cocktails are crafted” add to the overall experience by subconsciously summoning the Latin phrase “ad hoc”, meaning “when necessary or needed” which extends the brand’s duality even further.
When it comes to cocktails, the first thing that comes to mind is their colorful nature. Cocktail bars often highlight this aspect. The House of Cocktails neglects this trend in favor of class and luxury highlighted by the monochromatic logo design.
The tagline built into the full-version logo uses two clever tools:
However, to soften the air of exclusivity, the logo’s geometrical design is complemented by the deep shade of orange that symbolizes warmth, excitement and enthusiasm.
Because of its association with the changing seasons, orange often represents creativity, change and movement in general (fitting, considering how cocktails are made).
When it comes to design trends, orange commands attention without being as “aggressive" as the red hues.
Not to mention that orange juice is one of the key ingredients in the most popular cocktails.
The pattern's curvatures and vibrant color are supplemented by the inviting Vivant sans serif font.
The font marries the visual appeal of modified serif typefaces with a minimal geometric approach, discarding any surplus elements that may hurt its clean shape. The result is a sans serif font that exudes elegance and glamour, with a subtle art-deco style that feels both contemporary and welcoming.
The tagline is an all-caps, white sans serif font that beautifully contrasts the rest of the logo. It’s noticeable, yet small enough to be unobtrusive.
The purpose of any logo is to command attention and communicate the brand’s purpose and goals in a universal, visual language. The best thing about monogram-style logos is that they don’t require a specific setting to look their best.
The House of Cocktails’ logo stands out, it is attention-grabbing, yet it perfectly blends in.
That said, the House of Cocktail logo design is seamlessly applicable to a wide variety of marketing media, from business cards to online banners, etc.
Likewise, the convenient orange hue stands out well against both dark and light backgrounds in equal measure.
The minimalist symbol combined with the sans serif typeface complement each other beautifully in their style and simplicity but they can also be used as separate elements.
Established in the middle of the global pandemic, in the aftermath of the notorious Beirut port explosion, the House of Cocktails managed not only to become relevant but also to reinvent the food and drinks services industry best practices.
Pushing the frontier and drawing from the persevering spirit of Byblos city, the House of Cocktails is aimed at urban demographics, while also adopting the long-standing local customs.
Therefore, logo design needed to reflect this dualism in order to resonate not only to millennials but an emerging society that embraces modernity and tradition, as well as marking the House of Cocktail as a major “port” for social encounters.
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