Xenia by Nikos Georgopoulos

In the early 1950s, after the two world wars and the Greek Civil War, the government was effectively bankrupt. On that basis, they decided to create an ambitious new accommodation programme that would help to boost the tourism industry and repair the economy. Throughout the 60s and 70s, the 59 Xenia hotels that they built were extremely popular and thrived financially, before eventually going into administration in the 90s due to years of mismanagement leading up to the Greek financial meltdown. Xenia never had a consistent visual identity, with each hotel having its own typeface and logo. London based art director Nikos Georgopoulos decided to change this by creating a fictitious identity based on speculative research. The accompanying image series, by photographer Polly Brown, evokes a nostalgia and surreality around the now derelict hotel chain.