Oaxaca Resort
Oaxaca
Mexico
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INVESTOR: Mantle Group
ARCHITECT: INTARAN design
LANDSCAPING: INTARAN design
INTERIOR: Mary Lou Design
PRODUCER: Lucien Bolliger
ART DIRECTOR: Trinh Thai
CG VISUALISERS: Hieu Nguyen, Phuong Anh Tran, Quang Truong, Trinh Thai
Imagine a place where rugged mountains meet tropical forests and sweeping coastlines. A land shaped by extraordinary biodiversity, ancient cultures, and a deep connection between people and nature.
Set within this remarkable landscape, Oaxaca Resort by Mantle Group has been conceived as a retreat that embraces its surroundings rather than competing with them. A place intended to feel less like a conventional resort and more like an invitation to experience the landscape, culture, and slower rhythm of Oaxaca.
For the resort’s marketing imagery, we wanted to explore another aspect of the experience: the feeling of a bygone time.
Our aim was to present an honest representation of the place by stripping away stereotypical resort imagery, marketing fluff, and unnecessary artifice. Instead, we looked to a simpler time—pre-AI, pre-mobile phones, pre-internet, pre-social media and influencers; before over-curated visuals and constant stimulation became the norm.
Taking inspiration from one of the architect’s statements—“nostalgia is a memory sweetened by time”—we looked beyond the familiar language of contemporary resort photography. Rather than creating another overly polished vision of paradise, we wanted the images to feel personal, spontaneous, and imperfect; more like memories captured during a journey than photographs produced for a campaign.
The art direction draws inspiration from old Polaroid photographs and 16mm film, without attempting to simply replicate either aesthetic. Their imperfections, muted character, and sense of immediacy became a starting point for creating imagery that feels as though it could have been discovered years after a journey had taken place. The result is a collection of images that feels less like conventional resort advertising and more like fragments of memories from a place that has already been experienced.
Perhaps this is what nostalgia offers us: a reminder of a time before everything was photographed, filtered, shared, and carefully curated. Before travel became something to constantly document rather than simply experience.
A few glimpses into the marketing imagery created for Oaxaca Resort by Mantle Group.