Direction A

the painting

The Deep End

The frozen half-second of the summer's best cannonball — flat planes of pool-blue and sun, one white burst of spray. The card is the painting; the party is staged to match it, and it stays on the fridge until next August.

flat colour, hard edges one splash, everything else still high-noon sun only one perfect line of type

the moment before the water lands — Hockney's flat planes, staged at Villa Mirada's own pool

high-noon poolside — cactus, aqua water, the yellow of a parked convertible; joy carried by colour, never clip art

Pool aqua

#7EC8CD

In the imagery

Terracotta

#E2725B

In the imagery

Taxi yellow

#F2C94C

In the imagery

the exact four — terracotta tile, cream linen, aqua water, one yellow swizzle stick, in hard sun

Type specimen

Daphne Caldwell

display — Raleway 800, tracked caps

The Caldwell Splash · 29 August 2026

text — Raleway 300

one confident line, wide sun around it — the matchbook read

the splash, drawn flat — the one mark the whole suite repeats

rigid board, digital offset — flat ink, no shine, no gradient

the flash of taxi yellow — rationed to one painted edge, caught in raking sun

cannonball

full sun

The splash — "A Bigger Splash hangs over the bar"; this direction makes the card the painting and stages the party to match it.

The four colours — used flat and un-blended, the Girard / Herman Miller discipline the brief names; no gradient, no watercolour, no drop shadow.

One flash of yellow — the brief's "flash of taxi yellow", kept to a single painted edge so the card stays calm enough to want on the fridge.

How this world lands

InvitationFull-bleed flat splash; the date set straight on the cream sky beneath — no card-within-a-card, rounded corners like a pool float.

SuiteMenu and bar card keep the flat colour blocks; one taxi-yellow mark lands only on the signature cocktail.

Signage & spaceThe pool-and-splash scene enlarged at the breeze-block entry wall — built to read from the driveway in full sun.

DigitalRSVP page on a flat aqua field, the splash the only mark, the same one line of type.

Guest arcArrive to cream-and-aqua calm → the splash energy at peak afternoon → leave with a pool-curve favour tag, Martini tucked in the corner.

Direction B

the hotel

Hotel Mirada

For one afternoon Villa Mirada becomes a hotel and every guest checks in — a 1962 desert-hotel world built from your own restored house, remembered the way Kodachrome remembers a summer: golden, sun-faded, never once trying hard.

photograph, not illustration golden hour, sun-faded one sunburst does a crest's work open it like checking in

arriving at Hotel Mirada — the carport, the breeze-block wall, a car pulled into the shade

the kidney pool at golden hour — Slim Aarons' "Poolside Gossip", the stated soul of the whole brief

the ephemera — a matchbook, a key fob, a swizzle stick; the graphic world lives at cocktail-napkin scale

Type specimen

HOTEL MIRADA

display — Zilla Slab 600, the wordmark

Daphne Caldwell · the sixth summer

text — Raleway 500, tracked caps

a slab wordmark over spaced modernist caps — hotel signage

the sunburst — the hotel's crest, doing the work a monogram usually does

same rigid board — folded as a slim key-sleeve folio

Terracotta

#E2725B

In the imagery

Pool aqua

#7EC8CD

In the imagery

Brass yellow

#F2C94C

In the imagery

the key fob — warm leather and brass, the check-in object at print scale

the sixth summer

sun-faded

Slim Aarons — the brief's stated soul; golden-hour Kodachrome, sun-bleached glamour that never once tries hard.

Matchbook scale — "if it would look at home printed on a cocktail napkin at the Parker, we've got it"; the ephemera is the whole system.

Checking in — the sixth annual edition whose guest list has quadrupled; friends already re-book, so the card hands them a key.

How this world lands

InvitationA slim key-sleeve folio; the "HOTEL MIRADA" wordmark and sunburst over the golden photograph, the reservation inside.

SuiteMenu as a room-service card; the bar list as a poolside tab — cocktails already named for the conceit.

Signage & spaceA hotel-marquee wordmark and sunburst, freestanding at the breeze-block entry wall.

DigitalRSVP written as a reservation confirmation; the sunburst the only ornament.

Guest arcPull up to the "hotel" → check in at the wall → leave with a luggage-tag favour, Martini as the house mascot stamp.

The choice

Which world do you want built?

Both worlds are the same house, the same pool, the same August. What changes is whether the party is a picture or a place.

Choose A — The Deep End

You want one image to do everything — the frozen half-second of the summer's best cannonball, flat colour and one white burst, printed big. The card is the painting, and it stays on the fridge until next August.

Choose B — Hotel Mirada

You want the afternoon to be somewhere else — for one day Villa Mirada is a 1962 desert hotel and every guest checks in, keys, room-service card and all, remembered the way Kodachrome remembers a summer.

	A · The Deep End	B · Hotel Mirada
The idea	One picture, at full strength.	A whole fiction, held all afternoon.
Imagery	Flat illustration, hard edges, no photograph.	Photographic, golden hour, sun-faded.
The invitation	A full-bleed splash with one line of type.	A slim key-sleeve folio you open like checking in.
What the suite becomes	Colour blocks — menu, bar card, signage.	Hotel stationery — room service, poolside tab, luggage tags.
Type	Raleway 800 tracked caps, one line only.	Zilla Slab wordmark with Raleway caps beneath.
The favour	A pool-blue keepsake of the painting.	A luggage tag from a hotel that does not exist.
Effort	One strong asset carries the whole job.	Every piece has to stay in character.

Tell us which world, and every piece in the suite is built out of that one — the other is not carried forward.