The Wilder Townhouse

A hotel experience for those tired of the status quo.

The Wilder is a 42 room townhouse in a refurbished late-Victorian listed redbrick building on Dublin’s Adelaide Road. This beautiful historic building was dripping with character and had many interesting past incarnations. In the time since its construction in 1878, the building has served as a home for unmarried females – or as described on the deeds – a home for bewildered women, a home for retired governesses, and a nursing home for elderly nuns.

Anything But Ordinary

NAMING AND CONCEPT

The vision for The Wilder was to create something different, an experience for those tired of corporate style hotel chains. The Wilder would offer an experience that is ‘Anything but Ordinary’.

With Dublin being the birthplace of renowned Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, the owner liked the idea of referencing Wilde’s understated flamboyance, and unserious sophistication in the hotel brand and interior. We teamed up with copywriters Reed Words, and the name ‘The Wilder’ was created.

Historical typographic and illustrative inspiration.

While never explicitly referenced, elements of Wilde’s personality were incorporated into the brand, that sense of the unusual, and rejecting the status quo. While researching visual cues around Oscar Wilde in the victorian era, we came across an illustrated women’s publication that he took editorship of between 1887 and 1889 called ‘The Woman’s World’. Here he encouraged women to break free of the shackles of a victorian ‘lady’s’ life. The typography of the masthead and illustration inspired the logo and visual style – as well as a guest booklet in the style of the publication.

Introducing a cast of unusual characters.

Moments of surprise

No Wilde inspired hotel would be complete without a cast of oddballs and misfits to add some colour to the establishment.

In this spirit, and referencing the victorian illustrations of ‘The Woman’s World’ publication, we commissioned illustrator Alan Clarke to create a suite of illustrations for use as an intriguing detail on printed touch-points.