Kaanapali Beach is a three-mile stretch of shoreline on the western coast of Maui, Hawaiʻi, developed as the state’s first master-planned resort community beginning in 1959 by American Factors, Inc. (Amfac). The resort opened in 1962 and is today promoted by the Kaanapali Beach Resort Association (KBRA), a cooperative destination marketing organization formed in 1972 and comprising resort operators, hotels, condominiums and attractions.[1]
Design and History
Kaanapali Beach Resort does not operate under a single unified logo. Instead, the destination is represented by the KBRA, which markets the resort area as a whole, while each individual hotel, condominium and attraction maintains its own distinct visual identity.[1]
One of the most significant logo changes within the Kaanapali area came in 2017, when the Kāʻanapali Beach Hotel, one of the resort’s six hotels, unveiled a redesigned logo. The hotel said the new look was created to “pay homage to its heritage and deep Hawaiian roots.”[2] The new mark centers around a kukui nut lei, which holds significance as a representation of a guiding light or safe passage for travelers journeying throughout the islands.[3]
The redesign replaced an earlier logo that featured a kukui leaf. As the hotel’s leadership explained at the time, “The kukui leaf, which was represented on our old logo, only told part of the story.”[2] The hotel had distributed more than 330,000 kukui nut lei to departing guests in the 16 years prior to the logo change, a tradition reflected in the new mark.[2]
Meaning and Symbolism
The kukui nut lei featured in the Kāʻanapali Beach Hotel’s 2017 logo carries documented cultural meaning. The kukui nut lei represents a guiding light or safe passage for travelers as they journey throughout the islands.[3] This symbolism connects directly to the hotel’s practice of adorning guests with kukui nut lei after their first visit, a tradition that predates the logo redesign.[2]
The kukui tree itself has broader cultural resonance in Hawaiʻi. The oil from kukui nuts was historically burned in stone lanterns that illuminated Hawaiian houses, and the tree symbolizes light and knowledge.[4]
Typography and Design
No designer or agency has been publicly documented for the Kāʻanapali Beach Hotel’s 2017 logo redesign, and no official typography specifications have been published. The earlier claim that a designer named Ken Parkhurst created a Kaanapali Beach logo in 1964 cannot be verified through available sources. While Ken Parkhurst was an active Los Angeles-based graphic designer whose firm operated from at least the 1950s through the 1980s,[5] no documented connection between Parkhurst and any Kaanapali Beach logo has been found in available records.
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