Airbnb design boards

OUGD503 SB2 Collaborative

The Brand Airbnb is at the forefront when it comes to travel and offers an exciting and new experience for people whether it be for pleasure or business. Using their online platform they share a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover and book unique accommodation around the world.

Using their existing community empower and grow the idea of “belonging� to a new audience, translating this into a print and digital campaign.

Alec Mezzetti, Elliot Jones, Rory Blakemore, Joe Boyd

OUGD503 SB2 Collaborative

Influences Hand rendered typography has a consistent role throughout our Airbnb project. It has an attractive look and creates a homely vibe, which has been vital to bring forward in this project. We felt that it was important to carry on Airbnb’s friendly and approachable ethos within our visual aesthetic. The colour scheme used for the project has been carried out from the branding guidelines. Inspired by other vibrant print campaigns, that grab the attention of the audience, we decided to use the Airbnb colours to communicate a playful, friendly tone of voice. Designs for the banners took influence from landscape photography and imagery of city skylines. Creating effective imagery that showed different locations was essential, as Airbnb has a global community. The banners were composited with our own landscape photographs taken from journeys abroad and connected together making an ever wider landscape image across different countries.

Each poster design has a contrast between analogue typography and photographic images. Our research into poster advertisements and promotional campaigns helped influence the decision to go forward with this style. As the examples we discovered were successful in achieving an effective visual combining both elements, we made use of this and adopted a similar style to our posters for them to stand out whilst being advertised.

The illustrated postcards took inspiration and ideas from various other postcard examples we found that represented cities around Europe. Including recognisable parts of big cities was something that we wanted to be distinct within the postcards. We wanted them to have an attractive illustrative style, which would make the guests want to use or keep.

Alec Mezzetti, Elliot Jones, Rory Blakemore, Joe Boyd

OUGD503 SB2 Collaborative

Alec Mezzetti, Elliot Jones, Rory Blakemore, Joe Boyd

OUGD503 SB2 Collaborative

The Concept Problem We found that when we stayed at places using Airbnb, the place itself would be really homely, and create a sense of belonging, but the host was often absent, or in a rush, which prevented any proper interaction on arrival. In response to this we decided to sell the existing good points, and improve on the less good.

Concept Highlighting the ways in Airbnb already makes people feel at home and improving the service to make people feel more at home. An ad campaign that draws attention to the ‘belonging’ nature of airbnb stays, and the introduction of a welcome pack, that increases interaction with the host and familiarity with the location, making the stay more personal. The ways in which one can feel as if they belong in a place through Airbnb are the following:

• Personal interaction with the host • Staying in a home, rather than a hostel or hotel • Getting local knowledge from the host and seeing the location more like a local

We aimed to highlight all three of these and create ways to improve personal interaction and the transferral of local knowledge.

Audience Current Airbnb users, but the project should create a way in which current users bring in new ones. Young, affluent travellers, looking for a more personal travelling experience.

Aesthetic Personal and handmade, referencing both features of travel, and of homeliness. Using juxtaposition to draw attention to the unique experience of staying in a home while travelling.

Alec Mezzetti, Elliot Jones, Rory Blakemore, Joe Boyd

OUGD503 SB2 Collaborative

Print Ads Although Airbnb is an online business, their target audience are likely to also be among those reading magazines, in particular independent lifestyle publications. With this in mind we created a series of advertisements for print based around one of the main ways that Airbnb allows travellers to feel that they belong in a place, by allowing them to stay in a place that is a home.

This key idea of home has been represented by the comforts of home, and juxtaposed with the paraphernalia of travel, communicating the tagline ‘Home, Away’. We chose to photograph these in a still life fashion, rather than using illustration, to give a clear distinction between the layers once we added text and branding. The text is hand rendered to create a personal aesthetic, referencing the personal nature of the interactions and locations available through Airbnb. The colours used are those of the Airbnb brand, signifying the company even at a distance, and the abundance and range of colour shows the broad range of experiences available through the service.

Alec Mezzetti, Elliot Jones, Rory Blakemore, Joe Boyd

OUGD503 SB2 Collaborative

Postcards The postcards were created to be included in the welcome pack given to guests on their arrival. The cards would then hopefully be kept or used by guests. The cards are themed with the city or country being visited to add another level of personalisation to the packs. The postcards were produced in a loose, illustrative style giving them a hand made quality while also using bright colours and bold shapes that directly link to the Airbnb brand. The aim of the design on the cards was to illustrate how Airbnb brings together the city for you and allows you get more out of your visit. At the same time they were designed to simply look nice so that the guests keep them or send them home to family or friends. This would then grow the community of Airbnb users.

Alec Mezzetti, Elliot Jones, Rory Blakemore, Joe Boyd

OUGD503 SB2 Collaborative

Banner Ads As Airbnb is an online company we found that is was still important to create advertisements that appeared online, but to create something that was separate from social media and their own website. We decided to create a series of banner adverts that would appear on different online profiles and websites and be used as a way to attract a larger target audience. These banner adverts would be used alongside search engine results and appear within online shops and travel related sites With the use of smart search engine advertising this can help us gain that target audience through the means of Google searches, online shops and other embedded advertising.

We came up with the idea of using photography as we thought that this was a strong aesthetic to use and fitted in with the Airbnb look and feel. We created a skyline montage with the photographs adding hand rendered type over the top to create a more personal touch. Each banner used a different series of photographs that represented the range of different locations that people can stay with Airbnb. Following the brand guidelines we used four colours that they use within their branding and applied these to each of the banners to create a diverse range of adverts.

Alec Mezzetti, Elliot Jones, Rory Blakemore, Joe Boyd

OUGD503 SB2 Collaborative

Welcome Pack The aim with the welcome pack was to produce a pack which would provide information and local knowledge from Airbnb Hosts to give to their guests. We want to make customers feel welcome and at home when they arrive at their new destination. This pack includes postcards, a written letter from the host and an envelope, which has a repeated blue pattern made up of the airbnb logo. This is similar to the inside pattern on actual envelopes, which gives it a more realistic feel. Once the envelope is opened the first thing you read is the “belong anywhere� text is placed on the flap, which adds a comforting feel as in most cases the guest would have visited the location for the first time. All the elements featured within the pack, including the analogue type, hand drawn logo & illustrated postcards create an overall welcoming tone that the guest will be happy to receive.

Alec Mezzetti, Elliot Jones, Rory Blakemore, Joe Boyd