Some brands are built in studios.
This one was built under a tree.
“Roola” isn’t just a name. It’s a place.
A gathering point. A tree under which people met to talk, to argue, to celebrate, to decide.
In Old Ghala, that memory still breathes.
And when we were tasked with shaping the identity of a new district in Ghala,
we didn’t search for a trendy name.
We went back to the ground.
And found Roola.
The Assignment
We weren’t just branding a development.
We were helping shape a district with a soul
one that had to feel both rooted in its past and relevant for its future.
Working in collaboration with Oman Think Urban,
we approached Roola not as a commercial space,
but as a cultural and spatial node a place where community, memory, and identity intersect.
This wasn’t urban marketing.
It was ethnographic branding applied to urban planning.
The Process
- We started with place observation walking Ghala, tracing its textures, stories, and social rhythms.
- We listened to residents and workers not just what they said, but how they said it.
- We unearthed invisible narratives things that weren’t documented but were felt.
- We named the district after a memory Roola to anchor the future in something already meaningful.
The brand system emerged from this process:
- Visuals inspired by the lines and layers of Ghala.
- Language that echoed both tradition and evolution.
- Positioning that didn’t promise luxury or modernity but belonging.
The Outcome
Roola District isn’t a brand that shouts.
It’s a brand that grounds..
It tells a quiet story one of gathering, of rootedness, of return.
It doesn’t try to erase what was there. It builds on it with respect.
And that’s why it resonates not as a new place, but as a renewed memory.
This is branding that doesn’t erase the past.
It invites it to sit under the tree and stay.
