London’s The Dorchester has undergone a significant rebranding, honouring its 1930s inception but with a refreshed view on the future of luxury. We speak exclusively to creative agency Construct about its careful engineering of a precious luxury brand.
By the time Dorchester Collection approached Construct to work on its namesake property, it had already asked itself challenging questions about engagement, placemaking and the shifting needs of a luxury and UHNW audience. Founded 18 years ago by Georgia Fendley, a self-effacing and self-described ‘old-fashioned, craft-focused graphic designer’, London-based Construct is the go-to agency for both heritage and modern brands, including Aman resorts, linen company Frette and department stores Harvey Nichols and Harrods.
‘They were challenging themselves to really deliver to their target audience,’ says Fendley of The Dorchester team. Placemaking was crucial to this as the hotel looked to rethink its relationship with London – as well as its old-fashioned idea of the luxury customer. To put it simply, Construct’s remit was to relate visually to where the brand would like to be: ‘It’s a good opportunity to look at everything a brand represents – what is inauthentic and to be challenged, but also what the rest of the world allows this brand to be.’
Updating a heritage moment
Key for Fendley in leading this project, which coincides with the first major renovation of the property in over 30 years, has been understanding the mood and era during which the hotel was originally conceived – the 1930s – and how to translate that to a moment almost 100 years later in order to capture the new luxury customer. ‘The myth can often be bigger than the brand you experience. We needed to make the dream and the reality align in order to reach new audiences,’ she explains.
‘We’re often creating something on a 50-year trajectory where we have to imagine what the brand architecture might need to be in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. It's not: ‘How do we tell our story this year in order to attract that group?’’
The hotel was initially created for the influencers, creatives, movers and shakers of the 1930s – the people who ‘made the world turn’. The Construct team challenged themselves to create a brand identity for a hotel that’s still worthy of the people who make the world turn today. But who are they? ‘They’re not a demographic. They’re from all walks of life and move all over the world. And they care less about heritage than [the hotel’s] traditional customer groups,’ says Fendley, adding that ‘truth, transparency and trust are at the core of their modern mindset.’
