Bielke&Yang's identity for Sommerro Hotel revives the Art Deco history of a 1930s Oslo landmark

Sommerro is a 232-room hotel that’s opening in the Spring of 2022 in Oslo’s downtown west district Solli Plass. It will occupy a landmark 1930s building which was once the headquarters of the city’s electrical company, Oslo Lysverker. The hotel will have a public bath, state of the art gym, vivid event space and a panoramic rooftop terrace with a pool and sauna.

Local design studio Bielke&Yang has been working closely with Nordic Hotels & Resorts, the company behind Sommerro, to develop the hotel’s brand strategy, narrative and visual identity.

The historic building is a result of an architecture competition won by Georg Eliassen and Andreas Bjercke in 1917 with their concept named ‘The Two Sisters’. They gave the project this name because it represented two buildings: one for the power company (Kristiania Elektrisitetverk) and one for the gas company (Kristiania Gassverk). Before they finished the building process in 1931, Kristiania Elektrisitetverk changed its name to Oslo Lysverker and it was decided that both companies would exist under the same roof, meaning the sister building was never finished. Sommerro’s ambition to be a neighbourhood hotel to the people of Oslo is epitomised by the women featured in Per Krogh’s mosaic that’s housed within Oslo Lysverker, so Bielke&Yang referenced it for the logomark.

The custom sans serif and serif typefaces are the result of extensive research into the Art Deco movement, which was present when the building was constructed. Typography from this period is historically from France, Italy, the US and England. Scandinavia, however, is not recognised as one of its pioneers, and instead more of a melting-pot for what happened elsewhere. As Sommerro will welcome people from all over the world, Bielke&Yang saw this as an opportunity to capture the international Art Deco movement in a single type family. The two typefaces, which are still being expanded, will have a combined total of over 2000 glyphs. They can be adjusted to reflect the more Parisian side of Art Deco or be more Italian, for example, with the introduction of stylised ligatures. All future sub-identities will have unique combinations of colour, pattern and illustration but will be unified by the distinctly Sommerro typeface.

Bielke&Yang

Sommerro