Our bespoke print design for The Arts Club’s Mayfair health centre

How do you communicate world-class health and wellbeing to members of one of London’s most exclusive clubs without it feeling like some sort of ‘hard sell’? That was the challenge Lanserhof at The Arts Club set for us this summer. The (really exciting) answer came in the form of a piece of bespoke print design built around the idea that it should feel as if it had always belonged in the club.

Print that belongs

Amid the designer stores, auction houses and discreet hotels of Mayfair lies the beautiful and sophisticated Dover Street. At the heart of it, The Arts Club offers its members and guests two ways to spend their time: hedonistic and healthy. The club suggests, as all the very best members’ institutions and hotels in London do, that the two can happily coexist.

We were approached by the team at Lanserhof at The Arts Club, surely Mayfair’s most cutting-edge health destination, to create a uniquely on-brand piece of promotional material for their gym, wellness centre and health clinic: a custom-designed newspaper. Amid the blizzard of digital communications we work with every day, the suggestion of a well-considered piece of bespoke print design felt both exciting and quietly radical.

With the first issue now complete, the result, our hot-off-the-presses Art of Living Gazette, sits amid both parts of the club naturally. Our primary goal has been realised: to devise an informative part of the member experience that tells the stories of the outstanding professionals at Lanserhof at The Arts Club.

Elevating healthcare as an opportunity

Our first briefing came from Lanserhof at The Arts Club Chief Operating Officer Cesco Righetti. We had previously worked with Cesco when he was at the Bulgari in Knightsbridge on a digital project, so a new collaboration was a welcome opportunity. Promoting the work of a health-driven business requires careful thought. How do you communicate directly to the members of a private club explaining a set of exceptional facilities on offer?

A nuanced concept began to take shape. Cesco’s idea was to tell the stories of the different facets of Lanserhof at The Arts Club in a conversational, browsable form. The nature of a newspaper is to encourage the reader to take time and consider what they are reading, combining immediacy of content with considered opinion or editorial. I love great print, so this familiar format immediately made sense to us. It offered a way to deepen engagement, strengthen the club’s health credentials, and create something members would value enough to take home, extending the message well beyond the club walls. With initial meetings and draft content taking shape, The Art of Living Gazette was soon evolving from a clever idea into reality.

Defining the right editorial architecture

In terms of tone, we quickly established an approach for every aspect of the project that evoked authority without being clinical. Any first issue of a publication is an opportunity to start with a blank slate, so we set about introducing Lanserhof at The Arts Club with charm, beginning with a warm welcome from Cesco and re-setting every aspect of the members’ engagement with the place.

From the outset, our philosophy was to focus on journalistic storytelling rather than brochure-style blurb. We wanted to create a genuine reading experience that happened to feature healthcare content, rather than marketing disguised as editorial.

Our first issue featured wellness articles, new and existing practitioner profiles, and treatment explanations told through personal experience. With these themes agreed, structured information began to fall into place. The balance of clinical credibility with club elegance became the project’s central theme.

Designed to be discovered

We looked at broadsheet newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph and the New York Times for inspiration, studying their grids and typographic hierarchy. The Gazette was devised as a broadsheet of A2 paper, folded once and then twice to deliver a satisfying sense of anticipation. Stacked in a table or club sideboard, below the fold sits more to discover.

As a conversational piece, the choice of typeface was key. We selected Benton Modern Display, a highly readable face, ideal given our anticipation that readers might often encounter the Gazette in areas of low light. Colour was used sparingly, with the warm tones of the Lanserhof at The Arts Club brand appearing in trims and finishes. There were detailed discussions about when to follow brand guidelines and when to let the newspaper medium lead. The result was a key design decision to allow a measure of ‘editorial independence’ from the core brand look and feel, using the Lanserhof at The Arts Club identity to support the piece.

Unlike a daily newspaper, the Gazette has a month-long shelf-life. When specifying the print, we drew on our experience working on hotel menu systems. Durability is key, especially in hospitality settings, to making a piece of print communication feel part of the brand experience. This led to us choosing 350 gram paper, often used in business cards. The result feels substantial in your hand, reinforcing value and inviting members to linger over it, turning the Gazette into something worth keeping.

Conversations through print create potential

This project tells a story that is bigger than The Art of Living Gazette. At The Arts Club, senior management made the decision to invest in high-quality print communication. The result is a dialogue with members, who can pick up something special and tailored, telling stories created exclusively for them.

In an industry where experience is everything, each touchpoint should enhance rather than detract from the experience. A well-crafted piece of communication does more than inform. It reinforces the feeling that brought members to the club in the first place. After all, they have chosen somewhere that cares about quality in all its forms. It invites conversations between members and staff, generates interest about the club’s health offering, and positions Lanserhof at The Arts Club as a thoughtful, integral part of the club experience.

Behind the doors of London’s luxury clubs you’d expect to find impeccable service, a beautiful cocktail or special dinner amid the most lovely surroundings. Making the case for what these establishments do beyond that, such as the exceptional facilities at Lanserhof at The Arts Club, presents a greater challenge. I believe that our Gazette achieves exactly that, showing the impact of bespoke print design in reinforcing a sense of place.

Does your private members club need bespoke print design?

If your club or hospitality brand is ready to communicate with the same care you devote to your guest experience, let us create something lasting together.

Call us on +44 20 7351 4083 or email us direct to start the conversation.

Find out more

Our portfolio page about the project

More of our work within luxury hotel identity and print design