A Tuscan escape

The History

The family of artists and architects procured the pieces of a large villa previously owned by the Marsili Family, 1800’s Sienese nobility, with the intention to preserve and refurbish the centuries old buildings to their original beauty, but that project quickly became a place for new opportunity. 

The family came to us with dreams of turning the 8 building estate into a resort and agriturismo destination.  Not only did they transform the villas and homes into inviting suites, apartments, and houses for guests to stay, they also cultivated a vineyard and olive groves to produce their own olive oil and wine.

The Challenge

Ville Ferrano needed a brand that encompasses the history that exists within the walls of these properties while also making it feel fresh.  We designed a unique brandmark that encompassed the feeling of the long shadows of the afternoon tuscan light kissing the tall archways of the ville. When designing the lettermark we realized that the brand needed to change its name from Villa Ferrano (villa with an a) to Ville Ferrano. Villa Ferrano was the name of the largest home on the property. But the estate did not just represent that one home, it represented the whole of the 11 properties. Patricia and Mario were slowly reconstructing the historical ville, or small village, that once was whole one home at a time.

Rethinking Ville Ferrano

Before we became involved, Ville Ferrano had a very antiquated one page site and some booking.com postings for vacation rentals. We set out to not only create a website that showcases the mesmerizing views and warm stays front and center, but also allowed visitors to navigate the various types of stays they can choose from and get a fuller picture of the experience of staying at Ville Ferrano. 

Beyond just a vacation rental

Patricia and Mario have big dreams of what Ville Ferrano could be. In 2021, after the pandemic, they continued to expand their offerings from just a simple rental property to a bed and breakfast. Le Coppiole, one of the groups of homes on the estate offers breakfast every morning, all made with produce from their gardens or locally sourced from farms in the area.

They also began selling their olive oil and wine in 2021 and 2022. All their oil is cold pressed from olives grown on their property and their wine is harvested in fall from their vinyards growing Sangiovese grapes. We designed a labels for each of their bottles that showcased Patricia's own painting of the property. The labels mirror eachother in contrasting brand colors.

Getting the message out

While in Italy we captured countless scenic views, delicious food, portraits of the couple, and vignettes of their many properties. This was part of our social strategy. Ville Ferrano had so much to offer, yet we felt there was no way to understand the wholistic experience that Patricia and Mario had crafted. With the help of some high quality photos and videos, we were able to post more organic content and share the experience of staying at Ville Ferrano.

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