The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s fastest-growing hospitality markets, with $500 billion-backed groundbreaking giga-projects such as NEOM and The Red Sea Development Company making headlines across the globe.

Lebanese restaurant concepts are not new; therefore, our first task was to understand and identify gaps in the local market. Working with very modern and airy interior design aesthetics and a clear request for a contemporary, stand-alone, new brand concept, we had to be mindful of maintaining relevancy within the context of global brand powerhouse, Shangri-La. Research commenced by cementing a clear understanding of the competitive set, thus revealing a gap in the market for a high-end, highly curated, food experience.

Niyyali is a commonly used and understood Lebanese phrase meaning ‘how lucky am I?’. It carries a dual meaning poetically correlating to a belief since time immemorial that stars have an influence on peoples' lives; from the luck of seeing a shooting star, to being born under a lucky star.

This was the first step in our point of differentiation. Our name was unique. Truly, one of a kind. How lucky were we? The identity is inspired by the interior design: high ceilings, long elegant window frames, floating celestial shaped chandeliers, stardust and poetry.

We identified four key pillars - flavour, creativity, space, and culture - then distilled them into one central point, aligning the identity. The brandmark is simply elegant and has a beautiful symmetric flow between the Arabic and English marks.

Convincing the client to trust us with a name that was much more conceptual than their competitors.