– Shai Zelering
Managing Director, Brookfield Properties – Real Estate, Hospitality

We simply love working with Brookfield’s Property Group, their incredible team and Managing Director, Shai Zelering, their fearless, super smart and creative leader. Responsible for The Diplomat’s magnificent rebirth, his vision and his team’s ability to transform signature properties into independent flagship destinations is truly notable. Sharing a long history of collaborating with Shai on projects over the years, the mutual trust and healthy creative tension when our teams join forces never fails to realize amazing results.

We embarked on a multi-year adventure to holistically reimagine and create an entirely new brand experience for The Diplomat Beach Resort. Like a breath of fresh air, together we returned the friendly charisma and vibrancy of an iconic seaside resort back to this place – debuting a Hollywood Florida legend, reborn. Thank you Shai, for your passion and vision – and for inviting us to join you on these magnificent journeys.

Dipping into its treasured past and writing a completely new and evolved narrative, Korn Design re-branded and helped to re-introduced the all-new Diplomat Beach Resort – re-igniting this storied place with a fresh exuberance. Central to the transformation was restoring its legendary standing as a magnetic social hub – re-gaining its buzzy reputation for great food, great entertainment and simply fun, beachside, revealing its true potential at every turn.

Diving deeply into the reaches of the original resort’s allure, we laid claim to the authentic Diplomat experience by crafting a brand that evokes the best of beachside living with a reminiscent twist. An enduring place for generations to come.

Dive in!

“For the Diplomat, we wanted to bring back the essence and unique DNA of the hotel. Creatively, that meant asking, ‘how do you reintroduce a complex project like this with such a long history? We were extremely pleased [with Korn’s answer.] Everything from bringing “ beach resort” into the name, to the careful font selection, to the fresh new color palette, to the copy, was done not out of the blue, but out of deep immersion in the field, research and analysis of what is important, and what would get us to a successful repositioning. They care about every detail.”
– Shai Zelering
Managing Director, Brookfield Properties – Real Estate, Hospitality

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We are excited to share 25 pivotal projects, partnerships and creative moments with you over the next six months. Subscribe to our Newsletter to get monthly updates of our 25 years of projects. Follow us on Instagram to see more behind the scenes at Korn over the last 25 years!

From its surprisingly residential-inspired lobby to its rooftop perch to the hideaway of the guestrooms, HALCYON, A Hotel in Cherry Creek is luxurious, inviting, modern—an extraordinary hotel-home with a magnetic and magical pull. Like the flock of birds that fly free within the visual identity system, everywhere the air of Colorado ease is palpable and the experience is, quite simply, off the hook.

Stepping across the threshold of HALCYON’s front door instantly conveys the feeling of entering a friend’s fabulous home as a very welcomed guest. Warm, welcoming, and extremely comfortable – with considerate attention to the small stuff – HALCYON, which debuted September 2016, tends to all of the senses in a hotel that revolves around ensuring every creature comfort and taking it all up a notch.

Korn riffed on the hotel-as-home thread with a brand strategy that elevates the concept and engages in surprising ways, richly layered, like the hotel itself. Unlike with friends, guests can never outstay their welcome here.

Starting with the name: “halcyon” has multiple meanings that in combination, summon up a new kind of place. Drawing equally from its definition as a mythical bird fabled to calm the seas and its representation of idyllic happiness, carefree tranquility and prosperity, HALCYON connotes “a feeling.”

The visual identity embraces this at its core. A curated collection of icons speak to nature, luxe lifestyle, fashion and living with ease, all intended to capture the essence of the Halcyon experience – imbued with the ease of Colorado’s lifestyle and the air and grace of a different kind of luxury hotel. Working closely with esteemed interior design firm AvroKO, Korn introduced an interplay of signature brand touchpoints.

Halcyon is intentionally unhooked from the ordinary in all the best ways, as is our long-running collaboration and partnership with the client team from Sage Hospitality. This relationship has been behind so many pivotal shared projects in the hotel and restaurant space – together we push each other’s team to go deeper, think broader and then go back and push it again. Being bold together is fun, inspiring and a packs a huge return.

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We are excited to share 25 pivotal projects, partnerships and creative moments with you over the next six months. Subscribe to our Newsletter to get monthly updates of our 25 years of projects. Follow us on Instagram to see more behind the scenes at Korn over the last 25 years!

The divine Andy Levine of DuVine turned to Korn to help him re-tool their brand identity and communications to better reflect the world-class adventures and guest experiences DuVine had become known for across the globe. We embarked on a shared adventure to re-brand the company with a hot new visual identity, web site, print collateral and apparel – celebrating the vibrant style of a DuVine excursion and setting free the fun from within, Andy style.

A DuVine experience is punctuated with refreshing surprises – friends in all corners of the world who greet riders as family, break bread and share stories, bringing “authentic local” to a new level. We coined “Where in the World is Andy” early in the strategic unraveling of what makes DuVine so amazing. Making memories with Andy and his incredible team of knowledgeable guides and hosts is addictive. Likewise, sleek, high-energy and fashion-inspired elements now provide a magnetic appeal as the DuVine story was shared in print, online and in great gear and apparel.

A user-friendly website simplified the planning and trip-coordination process into a much more easy-to-navigate, seamless experience. We wanted the visuals to bring the experience, the locations, and the views from a cycle to life. We were super jazzed about the positive impact that this has had in supporting Andy’s vision and driving DuVine to the next level . . . lovably intense, and seeking the very best, he inspired us to peddle faster and better, Andy style.

“Working with Korn makes you think bigger and more boldly about your brand and was vital in propelling my company to where I wanted to take it. They helped to inject the DuVine style and story with its own unique essence. It still feels fresh and relevant today and has served us well. I am a fan and respect what they do on and off the corporate field.” – Andy Levine, Founder

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We are excited to share 25 pivotal projects, partnerships and creative moments with you over the next six months. Subscribe to our Newsletter to get monthly updates of our 25 years of projects. Follow us on Instagram to see more behind the scenes at Korn over the last 25 years!

In the mid-2000’s, the invitation to help create and launch The London Hotel brand with the incredible development team at Blackstone was a true gift– a celebration of our sweet spot. It was a memorable moment in time when boutique hotel concepts were having their heyday and the market was pretty cluttered and confused. Our vision was to disrupt by migrating the independent hotel experience up the food chain into the luxury lifestyle space.

Having the success and experience of transforming the SAVOY Hotels in London in their quiver, the first of the bi-coastal sister properties, The London NYC in mid-town New York, brought to light Blackstone’s deep understanding of European style, sensibility, and a unique service approach to sophisticated living.

No doubt, much skepticism arose with the bold choice of name here, but we were all clear from the start: this brand would avoid cliché and embody the feeling and sensibility of a truly modern cosmopolitan hotel.

The London Hotels brand represented a coming together of the best of each of its namesake cities, while offering something entirely new, and rearticulated for the U.S. landscape. We were lucky to collaborate with the U.K.-based design firm, David Collins Studio, whose beautiful interiors captured a highly tactile and wholly original aesthetic. We honor the memory and brilliant talent of David Collins and celebrate our amazing symbiotic working relationship with the project’s designer and now Creative Director of David Collins Studio, Simon Rawlings.

The London NYC appropriately took on a more handsome and Midtown Manhattan style than its sunny and glamorous West Coast sister, The London West Hollywood. The subtle but notable shift is achieved through distinct color palettes, patterns and materials. The lifestyle photography – by inspired Brit photographer Antony Crook – tells each of The London stories: one smattered with diffused sunspots and palms and a distinctly LA edge, the other with the tailored sophistication and energy of Midtown Manhattan, capturing the mix of each with The London’s European influence at the core.

Incomparable, iconic, timeless.

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We are excited to share 25 pivotal projects, partnerships and creative moments with you over the next six months. Subscribe to our Newsletter to get monthly updates of our 25 years of projects. Follow us on Instagram to see more behind the scenes at Korn over the last 25 years!

Richard Forté, the third generation of the Forté family leaders and one of the most respected innovators and traders in the world of this luxury fiber, was interested in disrupting the luxury segment by creating an e-commerce experience for Forté to make their cashmere garments, of unparalleled luxury and quality, available online. He called Korn and cashmere.com was born.

In keeping with the family tradition of producing only the finest cashmere, spun and knit to the highest standard, Richard was determined to use the site as a place to educate his luxury customers about the Forté difference, sharing the origins and care of the luxurious cashmere garments they were famous for.

Korn took a user-centered approach to introducing the brand online with the highest touch and user experience possible to capture the essence of the “feel” through the website and again through the packaging and information included with each delivery. This was truly the new frontier, and foretold a future of buying all kinds of luxury goods online!

Our first innovative touchpoint inadvertently created a noteworthy moment in the Korn history. With a laser-focus on transmitting the “high touch” of this luxe fiber without an in-store experience, we created a beautifully customized package to send out to the press that included a piece of raw cashmere fiber and a booklet titled “Cashmere 101” that offered a history of the fiber and simple care instructions for these luxury garments. These were shipped in cellophane envelopes so the fiber was visible in the post – a brilliant effort thwarted by the anthrax scare in 2001 when shipping white fluffy stuff through the U.S. post was not positively greeted! The mailing was confiscated and resent inside opaque shipping envelopes . . .

The product packaging was however incredibly well-received. Each garment was shipped in a sweater bag that could be re-used for safe storage. Arriving to the comfort of one’s home, the delivery was crafted to tip its hat to the most world-class luxe packaging as possible. Kudos for Richard for having the foresight to make luxury accessible online – as the world has evolved we look back at this game-changing moment in time and smile.

We are excited to share 25 pivotal projects, partnerships and creative moments with you over the next six months. Subscribe to our Newsletter to get monthly updates of our 25 years of projects. Follow us on Instagram to see more behind the scenes at Korn over the last 25 years!

As we turn the corner and look to an exciting year ahead, we are having fun reflecting on some of the more adventurous journeys we have embarked on over the years. Charting new territories was clearly in our DNA from the start: whether bringing luxury cashmere to e-commerce in the early 2000’s or injecting an British-inspired cosmopolitan flair into a saturated boutique hotel market stateside, we were on a mission to align with equally adventurous clients and share each journey to somewhere new.

2001 – Cashmere.com
Check out our first foray onto the World Wide Web! Richard Forté, the third generation of the Forté family leaders and innovators in the world of luxury yarns, was interested in creating an e-commerce experience for Forté and make their cashmere garments, of unparalleled luxury and quality available online. He called Korn. View Project >

2006 & 2008 – The London Hotels
In the mid-2000’s, the invitation to help create and launch The London Hotel brand with the incredible development team at Blackstone was a true gift – a celebration of our sweet spot. It was a memorable moment in time when boutique hotel concepts were having their heyday and the market was pretty cluttered and confused. Our vision was to disrupt by migrating the independent hotel experience up the food chain into the luxury lifestyle space. View Project >

2012 – DUVINE Cycling & Adventure Co.
The divine Andy Levine of DuVine turned to Korn to help him re-tool their brand identity and communications to better reflect the world-class adventures and guest experiences DuVine had become known for across the globe. We embarked on a shared adventure to re-brand the company with a hot new visual identity, web site, print collateral and apparel – celebrating the vibrant style of a DuVine excursion and setting free the fun from within, Andy style. View Project >

2016 – HALCYON A Hotel in Cherry Creek
From its surprisingly residential-inspired lobby to its rooftop perch to the hideaway of the guestrooms, HALCYON, A Hotel in Cherry Creek is luxurious, inviting, modern—an extraordinary hotel-home with a magnetic and magical pull. Like the flock of birds that fly free within the visual identity system, everywhere the air of Colorado ease is palpable and the experience is, quite simply, off the hook. View Project >

2017 – The DIPLOMAT Beach Resort
We simply love working with Brookfield’s Property Group, their incredible team and their fearless, super smart and creative leader Managing Director, Shai Zelering. Responsible for The Diplomat’s magnificent rebirth, his vision and his team’s ability to transform signature properties into independent flagship destinations is truly notable. Sharing a long history of collaborating with Shai and the wonderful Jennifer Rutkowski, VP of Sales + Marketing, on projects over the years, the mutual trust and healthy creative tension when our teams join forces never fails to realize amazing results.

We embarked on a multi-year adventure to holistically reimagine and create an entirely new brand experience for The Diplomat Beach Resort. Like a breath of fresh air, together we returned the friendly charisma and vibrancy of an iconic seaside resort back to this place – debuting a Hollywood Florida legend, reborn. Thank you Shai, for your passion and vision – and for inviting us to join these magnificent journeys. View Project >

We are excited to share 25 pivotal projects, partnerships and creative moments with you over the next six months. Subscribe to our Newsletter to get monthly updates of our 25 years of projects. Follow us on Instagram to see more behind the scenes at Korn over the last 25 years!