Golden Gator Miami Beach - Brand Identity Case Study

Golden Gator - Miami Beach

Logotype design & visual identity

First of all, this project was never implemented. The Golden Gator Bar was instead integrated into the Sérêvène Restaurant, inside the Hotel Greystone. But the case sudy is interesting.
Please contact me if you'd like to acquire one of these logos.

The Golden Gator was meant to be a hidden speakeasy bar, inside the Hotel Greystone on Collins Avenue, Miami Beach.

I was tasked with creating an intriguing identity for the bar, in tune with the atmosphere of the Hotel Greystone.

First and foremost, my clients wanted the Golden Gator to be shrouded in intrigue, reminiscent of a vintage noir movie, only with the twist of being situated in Miami Beach.

The alligator reference was a must, but another essential component of the logo was the typical crypticness and secrecy of the early 20th century speakeasy.

And here were my keywords:

• exclusive, high-end, privilege, gold, golden, luck, opulence
• speakeasy, secret, cryptic, confidential
• edgy, crocodile, gator, aggressive, raw
• emblem, totem animal, deity
• nature, wild, dance
• sophisticated, elaborate cocktails, chimy, alchemy, science, potions
• night, music, soft sounds, thick and soft fabrics

I had pretty much carte blanche regarding the style, to find a surprising solution.

Right from the beginning, I thought the idea of gate was very fitting, as a gate means a point of passage, but also a point of blockage, which is perfect for a speakeasy.
Riding along this line of thinking, resolving a riddle to allow entrance also comes to mind. Maybe an element of crypticness to decypher? Both the gates and riddles made me think of victorian wrought iron works and heraldry monograms.
But there's of course the other obvious strong conceptual part, the gator. Also rich in imagery, typical of the warmer south of the country, the fact that ours is made of gold gave it the mysterious twist that could tie in with the speakeasy concept. It made me think of golden amulets in ancient legends, like the ones we could find in the anime The Mysterious Cities of Gold and various esoteric tales.

Victorian Gator Ambigram

I started by working on intricate victorian lettering solutions. Looking for added crypticness, I came to the idea of an horizontally mirrored ambigram (text that can be read the same when reversed or rotated).
At some point, I realized the lettering was starting to ressemble clenched teeth, so I pushed it even further and integrated it inside an alligator head rendered in classical flourishes.

Golden Amulet

This approach is much less on the cryptic and secret speakeasy side but rather aims to integrate the Golden Gator branding into the Hotel Greystone visual language.

The Golden Gator having double Gs intials, the choice to extract a G-derived logomark made perfect sense, especially since the Hotel Greystone does too.
The same geometric style and texture treatment of the Greystone's mermaid was applied to maintain maximum consistency between the two brands.

Golden Gate

This option comes from the gator's iconic eye shape when idle in the water and waiting for a prey. More generally, there are also notions of a gate, bridge, passage, a lock and keyhole, even peeping hole, to try and see what happens behind the door of this secret speakeasy.
The water reflection also evokes a typical sunset on Miami Beach, only made more realistic by the golden texture.
One can also envision a mystical sign, an everseeing eye, the emblem of a cult.