New Logo and Identity for Dayuse.com by DesignStudio

Published on underconsideration.com | 07/10/2021 | Direct Link

About

Dayuse.com is the first site to offer daytime hotel bookings. Founded by David Lebée at the age of 29, along with his two partners Eugénie Lebée and Thibaud D'Agrèves, Dayuse.com saw the day in 2010. Working as director within large Parisian hotel groups at the time, David Lebée was often asked about daytime bookings. Guests wished to book a room for just a few hours, but traditional structures never had an appropriate service to offer. Dayuse.com was created to suit this exact need. Since its creation, the startup has strived to make daytime hotel bookings available to the bigger numbers. Dayuse.com gives its customers the opportunity to enjoy a hotel room as well as other services traditionally available to overnight guests only, in the daytime, at the best possible price.

Relevant Quote

DesignStudio set about defining the unique style and flavour that would set Dayuse apart. And to do that, we created a distinctive Cocktail of two ingredients; Honey and Ginger.

The first expressing smooth, seamless functionality, along with comfort, warmth and familiar 'sweetness', The second representing a kick of the unexpected, the cheekier, more playful side of the business, where you'll also find passion, romance and "heat'. From formal meetings to dangerous liaisons, with the right mix of honey and ginger, this brand is both. Another key element of the Dayuse brand, is time. Something reflected in the clock-face inspired logo. And across the visual system, which comprises a patchwork of moments, each a window on a mood, time of day or a service.

From the daylight hues in the brand's colours and photography, to the sensory snapshots of Berlin Michelle's illustrations, everything is designed to highlight hotels in their best light, and to inspire guests with every possible experience they could fit into a day. In a world of hotel-aggregator sites and black and white booking forms, Dayuse as a business, and now brand, is a burst of something different. A tapestry of moments and moods, from quiet focus to spicy romance, all woven together across the course of a day. Something unlike anything else out there. A new approach to an industry, that breaks conventions, and from our first meeting in Paris, to the brand's launch, exactly the kind of business we love to partner with.

Opinion

The first thing that struck me about this was how weird the name is. I mean, it's perfectly descriptive - "Day", "Use".. use the hotel in the day, I get it - but it's such a weird word to read and say. I rarely champion CamelCase in writing or logos but this is one that would certainly benefit from it. I keep reading it and saying it in my mind as "Dayoose". Anyway… The old logo maybe had a decent idea in using a Do Not Disturb door hanger for the icon but I think that in trying to make it look like a"d" and putting the keyhole as the counterspace, it looked more like a lock or storage company and the color palette didn't help. The new logo is more sophisticated with a deadpan sans serif wordmark that could easily be for a fashion brand, so it gains a more contemporary, urban feel. The detail of the "y" looking like the

hands of a clock is pretty smart and remains surprisingly readable even though it's such a weird word. The -Y" is then used as a standalone icon, which is a bold move as it's more minimal than minimal and could almost pass unperceived but since it's used mostly as a social media avatar and

appears inside a circle, the clock concept works perfectly. In application, all the elements are given a subtle black stroke that contrasts really well with the soft color palette and it gives everything a nice sense of structure. I also really like how the thin, slab-y serif (Luzi Type's Spezia Serif) matches the thickness of the stroke. The comic-book-panel-like layouts are good-looking and allow for the photography and illustrations to co-exist well in the

same space. Overall, I'm not sure what I expected for a web service to book day stays at hotels but somehow this nails it with a combination of feel-good vibes and a sophisticated execution that positions this service as a solid treat-yo-self indulgence.