Gala identity · The Dorchester, London
A black-tie evening turned into a brand: the wordmark, the seal, and the invitation a guest keeps.
Le Bal D’Or is a gala identity Ikaroa built for Paul Sagoo, in partnership with The Dorchester in London. The remit was a grand ball, the golden ball, dressed for New Year’s Eve. We gave it a gold-on-charcoal wordmark, an interlocked monogram, and a full set of pieces for the night, from the printed invitation to the place setting to the landing page.
The wordmark, charcoal on cream
Palette
The seal
An L, a B and a D, locked together
The monogram interlocks the three initials inside a ring, so it works as a standalone stamp when the full wordmark would be too much. It is the piece you find embossed on the envelope and pressed into the foil on a menu.
Built to hold its shape down to a lapel pin and up to a banner on a column, in gold or blind-embossed with no ink at all.
The evening
The landing page
Where guests book the night
Cream and gold, the same identity, online
How we approached it
01
A name that carries the room
Le Bal D'Or means the golden ball. The brief was a single black-tie evening that had to read as a tradition from the first invitation, so the name and the mark do the lifting before a guest reads a word of copy.
02
Gold as the only luxury
One metallic, on charcoal and on cream, nothing else. A gala for The Dorchester does not need colour. It needs restraint and a wordmark that looks engraved rather than printed.
03
A monogram that works small
The interlocked LBD seal sits inside the wordmark, embosses cleanly on an envelope, and stamps a menu or a bottle on its own. One mark, every size, from a lapel pin to a facade banner.
04
Made to host, not just to look
The system reaches past the logo into the things a guest actually touches: the invitation, the place setting, the menu, the gift. The brand had to survive contact with a real evening.
Planning a night that needs its own name?
Galas, launches, private events. We build the mark, the invitation and the page that sells the seat.