Hotel Mrak
Ljubljana through the eyes of a free spirit
A video story series, a visual identity and QR codes in the rooms that put Hotel Mrak at the heart of the city's story
- Client
- Hotel Mrak
- Year
- 2023–2024
Hotel Mrak sits in the centre of Ljubljana, a few steps from Križanke. It was founded by the family of playwright Ivan Mrak, a Bohemian soul of the kind Ljubljana has always welcomed. So the hotel is not just a place to sleep but a starting point for discovering the city.
For the hotel we designed a series of video stories with a common thread, the »free spirit«: about Ljubljana's landmarks, about how the hotel is woven into the city's story, and about the people who shape it. We created the concepts, scripts, filming, the visual identity of the videos, the texts and interactive content that guests find right in their room.
In numbers
- 12
- Video stories: eight short ones on landmarks, three in-depth ones on the city and an interview with a photographer.
- 34
- Minutes of video, filmed all over Ljubljana.
- 34
- QR plaques in the hotel: in 32 themed rooms, in the photo room and at reception.
- 22
- Accompanying texts in Slovenian and English for the website.
The common thread
The free spirit: Ljubljana through the eyes of a hotel that is part of its story.
01The idea: the hotel as a city guide
Instead of a classic presentation video of rooms and breakfast, we proposed a series of stories in which the hotel shows guests Ljubljana the way locals know it. The face and voice of the stories is art historian and author Noah Charney, an American living in Slovenia who sees the city with the eyes of a curious traveller.
Each short story starts in front of the hotel: we filmed the route to the landmark in hyperlapse, so viewers see how close everything is. The hotel is not an advert but the starting point of every walk.
What changes
- Rooms, breakfast and reception
- The hotel talks about itself
- One video on the website
- Guests watch it once, before booking
- Ljubljana, its landmarks and people
- The hotel is the starting point of every story
- Twelve stories, QR codes in the rooms and social media
- Guests return to the stories during their stay
02Eight landmarks, eight short stories
The short stories run just over a minute. Each reveals one landmark and a detail the guidebooks leave out. We filmed eight of them over two shooting days in July 2023, at eight locations around the city.
Short video stories
Length of the video stories (in seconds)
- Plečnik's Ljubljana 485
- Bohemian Ljubljana 448
- Christmas in Ljubljana 335
- Photographer Igor Andjelić 183
- Križanke Summer Theatre 81
- National and University Library 78
- Robba Fountain 78
- Prešeren Square 74
- Vurnik's House 74
- Ljubljana Castle 71
- Early Christian Centre 71
- Dragon Bridge 63
The three in-depth stories run five to eight minutes, the short ones just over a minute.
03In-depth stories: Plečnik, Bohemians and December
Architecture is like music frozen in time.
After the 1895 earthquake, Jože Plečnik took on the rebuilding of the city, a modernist mystic who drew on everything from ancient Egypt to the Secession. The story shows how few cities in the world are so closely tied to a single architect.
In the footsteps of playwright Ivan Mrak.
A day for free spirits: the café in the City Museum's basement, Trubarjeva Street, 700 faces on Ključavničarska Street, Cukrarna, and an evening by the Ljubljanica with a glass of Rebula.
The city as a light installation.
Lights designed by the Modic family, The Nutcracker at the opera, the ARTish fair at Rog Centre and three gift-bringers: Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus and Grandfather Frost. We added this story with the client in place of the hotel presentation.
The story behind the photographs on the hotel walls.
A conversation with the photographer whose work hangs in the hotel. Guests open it with the QR code in the photo room.
04The visual identity of the videos
We designed a dedicated animated visual identity for the series: intro animations with motifs of clocks, mosaics and handwriting that sum up each location's history, and the animated Mrak lettering on the hotel door as the signature of every story. The same elements produced nine intro animations for social media.
05The story of your room
Hotel Mrak has themed rooms dedicated to Ljubljana's landmarks. In each we placed a metal plaque with a QR code and the invitation »Explore the story of your room«. Guests scan it with their phone and within seconds watch the story of the very place their room is named after. The main code at reception opens all the stories, and the code in the photo room opens the conversation with the photographer.
Project timeline
-
April 2023
Concept
The creative concept, the free spirit thread, the formats and an invitation to Noah Charney.
-
May–June 2023
Scripts and permits
A test shoot on Dragon Bridge, scripts, filming permits and a production plan.
-
July 2023
Filming
Two shooting days at eight locations around Ljubljana.
-
September 2023
Eight short stories
Editing, animated graphics and client approval.
-
October–December 2023
In-depth stories
Plečnik's and Bohemian Ljubljana, and the December shoot for the Christmas story.
-
January–March 2024
Website and QR codes
The Video stories subpage, texts in two languages and 34 QR plaques in the hotel.
06The result
Hotel Mrak now has a library of video stories that place it at the heart of Ljubljana's story: on the website, on social media and in every room. Guests get not just a key but an invitation to discover the city through the eyes of a hotel that is part of its history. All the stories are on Hotel Mrak's Video stories page.
07Where this project sits in our matrix
We work across all of these layers, and any combination is possible.
- Who we worked for
- Executive leadershipCorporate communicationsHRMarketingPublic sector
- Project scope
- Small brand storyAlways-on communicationBig brand story (a full campaign)
- What we improved
- ProcessesRelationshipsContent
- How we approached it
- StrategicallyDigitally, with AICreativelyIn an advisory role
- How long?
- Short-term (up to 3 months)Mid-term (3–12 months)Long-term (a year or more)
- What we created
- DocumentsPresentationsVisual identitiesDesignWebsitesSocial mediaCopywritingPhotographyVideo storiesAnimationsPodcastsEventsWorkshops