Africa's jewel of a resort rebranded

“The property is set alongside seven kilometres of riverfront, it's a leisure destination, and this is our focus.” A property of the Harrahs Entertainment Group, it offers a 77-room four-star hotel, luxury bush lodges, riverside self catering chalets, camping and conferencing as well as a myriad of family driven activities, including the Animal World zoo, the Aquadome indoor adventure water world, adventure golf and ten pin bowling among others.

The new brand identity was imagined by agency Switch. “Our brief was to evolve its identity to portray a more African, warmer and more approachable feel,” says Switch creative director Adam Botha. “Our design approach was to create more of an icon out of the stone, by firstly looking a little closer at the facets of this gem and the colours therein. Secondly, was to consider the geographical placement of the resort and depict this in a simple way. Thirdly, we contemplated how to craft typography to be iconic.”

Clean and bold

The design solution resulted in a clean, bold logo that uses the facets of the gem to reinforce the name ‘Emerald' and its distinct characteristics. Through using richer, more layered green hues and fresher blues the logo ‘goes back to nature' adding a grounded quality to the identity says Botha.

Displaying the gem emerging from the Vaal River reinforces the geographical location of the resort. Alternating the order from ‘casino and resort' to ‘resort and casino' puts emphasis on the resort side of the offering reinforcing strategy going forward.

“The new identity coupled with our strategic shift in positioning will filter through to all aspects of our brand communication henceforth,” continues Rice. “This direction is not dissimilar to that of our holding company where, in Las Vegas for example, the move toward leisure with a gaming aside has been exceptionally successful.”

The resort is situated on the banks of the Vaal River in Vanderbijlpark, 45 minutes drive from central Johannesburg.