Dusit Central Park is the collaborative result of two of Thailand’s most prominent hospitality and leisure brands joining together to redevelop Bangkok’s most iconic address. Dusit Thani, whose international portfolio of hotels and resorts continue a tradition of Thai hospitality and graciousness, partnered with Central Pattana (CPN), Thailand’s largest retail property company that specialises in large-scale, fully integrated shopping experiences, to create a new mixed-use leisure, work and residential destination.
‘Dusit Corner’, at the intersection of the metropolitan Silom district and the tranquil Lumpini Park, has been the site of the flagship Dusit Thani Bangkok hotel since its completion in 1970. A symbol of Thai architecture and tradition, after 50 years the site is being redeveloped by OMA to launch a new vision of the hotel alongside a vibrant shopping, work and social space, and two residential blocks. Pentagram’s challenge was to create an identity that tied DCP’s diverse offers together; that connected the location’s heritage to its new future as a modern international destination; and manifested its position between the urbanised, high-speed city and the relaxed surroundings of Lumpini Park.
After naming the development and sub-brand structure, Pentagram developed a brand narrative and tone of voice that leads with the statement “Here for Bangkok”, solidifying DCP’s commitment to creating a space that fits the needs of its visitors, residents and the wider Bangkok community. Each of DCP’s offers has a specialisation of this brand statement, reflecting their purpose and tone. Central Park is “Here for what’s now and what’s next, Central Park Offices is “Here for business and pleasure” and Dusit Parkside and Dusit Residences are “Here for exceptional parkside living”.
With the development set for completion in 2026, DCP needed a means to introduce the project and engage with potential customers and partners without the ability to show the space itself. In response Pentagram scripted, audio directed and created a 3D-rendered animated video, showcasing speculative spaces that mix artefacts of Dust Thani Bangkok’s design heritage with elements of OMA’s proposed designs. Each depicted environment is an inhabited space, but juxtaposes moments of surreal physics and motion, not only indicative of the building’s transitional state of change, but of the dynamic, future facing approach DCP is taking with its design.
The foundation of the DCP visual brand, and its three sub-brands is a bespoke typeface, developed alongside NaN Foundry's Luke Prowse, with a core DNA that extends to four different styles and was created in both Latin and Thai character sets. Each of the wordmarks are derived from the bespoke typographic style. The core version of the typeface is used by the overarching DCP brand and is a robust, modern, geometric style with detailing that exposes an underlying modularity. The exaggerated joins and separated strokes are architectural in tone and reference the repeating linearity of the original Dusit Thani Bangkok’s design. Central Park and Central Park Offices alter the core style with significantly increased contrast at stroke joins that creates sharp, deep ink traps that add an extra visual sparkle as the negative space surrounding the characters is more prominent and energised. Dusit Parkside softens the core DNA with the addition of curved strokes, as well as select stencil-like breaks, the combination of these features creates a flowing, unexpected rhythm through the characters, appearing more floral and organic. Finally Dust Residences not only introduces a subtle, refined stroke modulation, but adds a modern slab serif, mixing the dynamic brand DNA with a sophisticated tone.
Pentagram collaborated with Bangkok foundry Type-K to include the Thai alphabet, in all styles and weight variations, allowing DCP’s typographic voice to be bilingual in all instances. Despite the large size of the typographic family, the design was created to be fully interpolatable, with a variable-font version allowing a number of practical benefits. Starting with native animations and transitions on the web using the variable font, allowing the typeface and logotypes to seamlessly switch between sub-brand instances, this thinking extended into the space itself with a signage system that can be contextually responsive, such as changing weight through different light conditions or times of day, aiding legibility, or to create a different visual tone across the space.
The typographic style is complimented by a brand colour palette and pattern language that also follows the sub-brand structure. The main DCP brand and the four sub-brands each have a lead colour that balances the modern, international outlook of the experience with the vibrant surroundings of Bangkok, considerate of both the hotel’s heritage and the cultural significance of colour in Thailand. Each colour also has a tonal constancy allowing the full family to live comfortably together. A series of minimal patterns were also created for each of the brand’s facets, as well as a symbol for the main Dusit Central Park brand. Routed in the design legacy of the original Dusit Thani Bangkok, each element references a decorative element from an artefact found in the hotel, such as the iconic hexagonal awnings surrounding various parts of the building, which OMA also feature in the new building, and the grand carpet of the main entrance hall. The patterns are a secondary brand element to add depth and dynamism to visuals when needed, coupled with animation behaviours that allow each of them to be subtly expressive on digital platforms.
Dusit Central Park represents a significant change to Bangkok’s landscape and Pentagram’s visual identity, built on the development’s iconic legacy, forms a robust basis for the project’s activities both now and into the future.
