Mariott - Grapeskin
Scope of work
Branding and collateral roll out for the F&B outlets
Grapeskin - Wine bar
Awards
ME Transform Awards Silver
45th Creativity International Awards Gold
Brief
La Ville Hotel & Suites was the first hotel to open in City Walk, Dubai's new urban living destination. Within it, Grapeskin was conceived as something the Dubai hospitality market hadn't quite seen before: a wine bar with a genuine point of view. Not just a place to wind down after work, but a destination with enough personality, provocation, and wit to pull in a new generation of urban explorers looking for somewhere that felt different. The brief was to build a brand identity to match that ambition, in a market where standing out is genuinely hard work.
Strategy
Dubai's F&B market is relentless. New openings arrive constantly, and most fight for attention on the same terms: location, menu, aesthetic. The strategic opportunity with Grapeskin was to compete on a different level entirely, to give the bar a philosophy rather than just a personality. Something that could be felt in every touchpoint, from the name on the door to the details inside, and that gave curious, design-literate guests a reason to engage beyond the drinks list.
That philosophy became "life repurposed." The idea that things discarded, overlooked, or considered past their usefulness can be transformed into something new, something better, something worth celebrating. It was the right idea for a wine bar in a city that moves fast and rarely looks back.
Creative
The brand identity was built from the philosophy outward. Rather than arriving at a logo and working backwards, Karak developed a complete world for Grapeskin, one where the concept of repurposing informed the visual language, the tone of voice, and the texture of the brand experience. The result was an identity that felt curated rather than designed, layered rather than polished, and genuinely unlike anything else operating in the Dubai market at the time.
Results
A wine bar that arrived with a brand strong enough to carry the weight of its own concept. Grapeskin opened not just as a new venue but as a new kind of venue, with an identity built to intrigue, reward, and keep people coming back to see what they might have missed.
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