Doah

On 25 acres of mature hardwood forest in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, Doah is a high-end wellness retreat based around five minimalist cabins by architect Leopold Banchini. Abbreviated Projects has served as Doah’s strategic and creative partner since the property’s earliest conception. Over the course of a multiyear partnership, we helped the retreat’s founders — Remo Kommnick and Emi Moore — cultivate investment, develop an identity, and go-to-market.

Accentuating the retreat’s self-guided format, we positioned Doah as an “ambient hospitality experience inviting introspection, interaction, immersion, and presence through carefully curated environmental factors.”

The logo system echoes a recurring circular motif used in windows and fixtures throughout the cabins. From another angle, the mark’s negative space recalls the small holes bored in trees by insects and woodpeckers.

Doah’s palette is stripped down to three elemental hues: an iron-rich orange recalling the rich soil of the Shenandoah, an off-black referencing the fire-treated siding of Japanese tea houses, and an off-white conjuring the thick blankets of snow that drape western Virginia in the winter months.

Abbreviated Projects creative directed the development of a flexible suite of visual assets.

Still life photographs by Ethan Hickerson celebrate found objects on the property, while painterly illustrations by Frannie Wise depict the perfect daily cycle of a stay at Doah. Filmmaker Ross Gerhold captured footage of ambient scenery around the site, drawing prospective guests into the perfect calm of Doah’s environment.

Doah only communicates in lower case letters. To accommodate this style, we customized an Abbr. Foundry typeface to include old-style numbers that match the heights of the rest of the letters.

“Doah started with a name and a feeling, and Zander and Simon helped turn that into something real. Their thinking shaped not just the brand, but how we approach the entire project.” — Remo Kommnick, Founder, Doah