Yalo

Nestled in the heart of Ghent on Brabantdam Street, Yalo is a four-star hotel with 92 beautifully designed rooms, a vibrant cocktail and wine bar, an exquisite foodie restaurant, exceptional meeting spaces, and a rooftop offering expansive city views. “We went all out in terms of experience and design to ensure its 24/7 relevance,” Nicolas explains. This is manifested in a place that can serve as a spot for breakfast, apéritifs, dinner, and even a club. Hotel guests dine on-site, and locals might even forget that Yalo is, at its core, a hotel.”

An innovative concept calls for an equally innovative branding. Hip, yet high-end, with an overwhelmingly cosmopolitan vibe. King George looked for a colour palette in the same vein. The dark green chosen has a chic but also atypical edge. We opted for a touch retro, with a nod to mid-century, just like the interior. It was given a classy vibe, without being too classic, with a modern twist. The gold elements stand by that recipe. “Yalo was given the typical King George sauce: unique, luxurious with a touch of rock and roll,” says Nicolas. Because the name is short, we were able to give it a graphic effect. It is geometric and has a metropolitan vibe; the SoHo or better SoGo feel of what Ghent can be. The recognisable and recurring patterns again give a retro feel, which has been carried through to the interior.

The graphic creatives at King George set to work with the visual identity. With a web design in the same vein, visitors are surprised even before they have visited Yalo. “We managed to create a website that is essentially conversion-oriented, without looking standard and basic,” says Jan Verbelen, Art Director. “On the one hand, you get the vibe that the hotel exudes, thanks to the house style, moving images and video footage, and on the other, it is very functional. This website is alive!”

“The challenge was to communicate about the hotel before we even had visuals,” says Jan. So the graphics team came up with a cool animation style that could already convey the right feeling to make people curious. For example, Yalo’s ‘Y’ was fully animated with a flickering 3D neon effect. “An eye-catcher of considerable size!”

The Yalo building is a place of experience, and this becomes clear from the website. It too was given the vibrant Yalo atmosphere and immerses the visitor in what Yalo has to offer. Visitors walk past the rooms, meeting rooms, bar, restaurant and rooftop, and can also book them easily. Using a link to a booking system, you can check availability in order to book.

From the moment a room is booked, the journey begins. With personalised and catchy mails, visitors are immersed in the Yalo-tale before and after their visit!

Yalo was a renovation project, having been a shopping centre until about a decade ago. Turning such an 80s non-place into an overall concept was a challenge, to say the least. A hotel, restaurant and rooftop bar had to harmoniously reconcile with each other and become an attraction that had to appeal to Ghent residents, business people and tourists alike. “Everything in Yalo had to be multi-purpose, which is also what makes it so unique,” Nicolas says.

The 92 rooms count five furnishing concepts that are used interchangeably so that guests can always be surprised on different visits. King George also calls the furnishings hybrid: no vintage, no design, no luxury, but all of that in a balanced mix. Branding returns everywhere, from the main colours of gold and dark green to some secondary colours, such as terracotta red and ochre yellow. This again gives the interior that retro mid-century vibe.

The restaurant and bar were the biggest challenge. Every visitor – with whatever profile – had to be able to feel at home there. “Everything had to be seamlessly linked,” explains Soo Heyvaert, Interior Designer. “The flex worker might prefer to sit a bit higher up and also want to be able to work in silence, while a group of girl friends likes to chat over a lavish lunch. The spacious atrium made it difficult to make the most of this division, but strategically placing the furniture created open and enclosed seating areas.”

The incidence of light – large windows letting through Belgian, cold and white light – from above also did not always make it easy to create a warm setting. Through the materials used (furniture and lighting groups) and by working with levels (i.e. no walls or partitions), it was possible to create a living room feel on a large scale. There was the mid-century framework again! The bar in the middle acts as a compass, without losing sight of the imposing atrium.

The result of the hotel is in a design style that includes a mid-century design nod, but brought back to a modern and innovative concept. Without losing sight of architecture and sophistication. “Everything here is free of clichés,” Soo points out. “The result did not come about by decorating off, but by measuring every square metre architecturally. We didn’t just decorate anything, the decoration was just to finish off the already strong interior.”