Aneraides Award-winning logo & identity for apartments · Kythnos
Logo and identity for Aneraides Apartments on Kythnos, inspired by the local legend of the Bofiliou family. Bronze medal at The Best Brand Awards.
To turn a living local legend into a mark of hospitality: recognisable, airy and simple enough to work on a sign, on keys and in every small application of the accommodation.
A single-colour aneraida floating between moon and stars, with the bolia as the key to the story, in a soft dusk purple and Futura typography.
Bronze medal and 3rd place for the Europe & Africa region at The Best Brand Awards, an international logo design competition.
Aneraides Apartments: a Kythnos legend turned award-winning logo
Aneraides Apartments are rental apartments on Kythnos, in the Cyclades, owned by the Bofiliou family. The name — aneraides are the fairies of Greek folklore — comes from an island legend directly tied to the family itself. Poua Design designed the logo, the visual identity and its applications inside the accommodation.
According to an old legend of the island, an aneraida married a man of the Bofiliou family. He took her bolia — her headscarf, the one thing that let her leave and become an air spirit again — and so she stayed with him, made a family and had children. Years later, at a wedding in the village, she managed to get her bolia back. She dressed up, went to the celebration and, while everyone was dancing, became an air spirit once more and flew away. But her love for her children made her return in secret every day, while her husband was away, to look after them.
That legend became the foundation of the whole identity. We drew our own aneraida, with the bolia as the central element, fine, airy lines and a soft, warm, romantic colour that suited both the story and the hospitality of a Cycladic accommodation.
The Aneraides logo went on to be distinguished, taking 3rd place at European level at The Best Brand Awards. And that is how the Aneraides flew quite far — not only for the Bofiliou family, but for us too, since this was one of the projects that marked our studio's growth.
How it came together
- 01
Research & challenge
Before the first sketch we gathered material about the legend and its era: old photographs of women in traditional costume, book pages recording the story and old illustrations of fairies. The inspiration board showed that the most distinctive element wasn't the wings or the magic but the bolia, the hair covering on which the whole plot rests.
- 02
Idea & design
The aneraida was drawn as an air spirit that seems to hang from the sky, with the bolia clearly visible in her hair. The mark is single-colour, in a soft purple inspired by the Cycladic sky at sunset. For the name we chose Futura Greek, a clean geometric typeface, in two weights: Medium for ΑΝΕΡΑΪΔΕΣ and Light for APARTMENTS. The strict typography balances the fluid movement of the symbol.
- 03
Delivery & result
The identity moved into the points a guest meets from arrival to departure: the accommodation's sign, the "do not disturb" card for the doors and the key holders with numbered keyrings. The mark then entered The Best Brand Awards, an international institution devoted exclusively to logos, and won the bronze medal in the Europe & Africa entries. It is the most recognised work of our studio to date.
