Elevating a brand

The Grand Windsock is a beach and dive resort on Bonaire, an island in the southern Caribbean. It opened in 2019 as a family-friendly resort. However, when a new general manager was hired in 2023, they wanted to elevate the brand to target a more affluent market.

After a few local agencies missed the mark, the hotel contacted Aurora to work on new branding for not only the main resort but also their newly acquired beach club, which would be renamed the Grand Windsock Ocean Club.

Scope

The initial scope of the project was for Aurora to create an updated logo and brand guidelines for the Grand Windsock hotel. The selected logo would then be adapted to create a complementary logo and brand for the Ocean Club.

The scope later evolved to have Aurora also design and build a new website for the Ocean Club. Additional design assets were also requested to support and promote the new brand.

Branding

The hotel’s previous brand was very family-oriented and used a lot of playful colours. Apart from the two luxury resorts on the island, most of the hotels on Bonaire are modest, targeting lower-middle-class scuba diving enthusiasts. That left a gap in attracting the middle- and upper-middle-class markets from Canada, the United States and Europe.

To truly understand the vibe and aesthetic desired by the new general manager, the Aurora team travelled to Bonaire to get more familiar the resort. Ultimately, the Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton brands served as the inspiration for the updated Grand Windsock logo and brand. The intent was to create a sophisticated brand that featured neutral tones and also had some local flare. To meet that last requirement, Aurora designed a logo based on an icon depicting a sea fan, which represents the rich and robust scuba diving opportunities found around the island.

Once the logo and branding were approved, the logo was then adapted to work for the Ocean Club, with one of the arms of the sea fan adjusted to become the silhouette of a fish.

Following approval of all the branding, the focus shifted to developing additional marketing collateral to support the new brand. This included designing a trade show booth, branded swag, an outdoor wall mural promoting the Ocean Club, social media templates and the food menus used at the resort.

The new brand even informed the renovations of the Ocean Club, such as furniture and décor decisions.

UX/UI design

To create the sitemap for the Ocean Club website, Aurora started by researching the websites of comparable restaurants and beach clubs, then adapting the findings to the particular requirements of the Ocean Club. Wireframes were developed with the goal of maximizing the number of bookings made through the website.

All the designs were created in line with the new brand guidelines.

CMS build

Aurora built the Ocean Club site with WordPress using custom modules. The menu and reservation functionality uses an embed code from Stay, a resort-wide mobile app used by both staff and guests. This approach allows the menu and reservation systems to be integrated into the hotel’s point of sale (POS) system.

Outcomes

What started off as just a branding exercise turned into an extensive scope of work due to how impressed and satisfied the client was with the quality of Aurora’s work. An ongoing retainer model is now in place for any additional design or web development efforts.

Grand Windsock staff have also bought in. The Aurora team has been told by numerous staff members that they love the new brand — and often wear their branded swag even when they’re not working.