I partnered with hospitality powerhouse Piper Stremmel and San Francisco-based architectural firm Studio BBA, to create a brand and digital experience for The Jesse boutique hotel in Reno, Nevada. The final concept is faithful to the city’s history, community and desert landscape while appealing to design-conscious travellers.
The launch was awarded a Gold ADDY and gold certificate for Integrated Branding from the American Adverting Awards in Silicon Valley. The Jesse receives ongoing recognition, with features in Forbes, Wallpaper*, Design Milk Travels, Hospitality Design, and Schoolhouse.
Strategy, Branding, Digital, Collateral, Signage
The Brief
The Jesse, a new six-room boutique hotel and bar, required a distinctive end-to-end brand experience. It had to bring to life the “hip, approachable, design-oriented, warm, experiential, and uniquely Reno property” with the hotel’s ethos of “great design, exceptional service, and community”. It also had to appeal to the local community while attracting design-loving tourists.
The team required a powerful brand concept that would work across everything from hotel collateral to signage and social media, along with a WordPress website integrated with the hotel operational systems.
The Answer
The ethos of the brand is design, and I looked for every opportunity to pay homage to the local surrounding high-desert, the history of the building and its location, with simple sophistication.
The illustrated tumbleweed honours the transiency of the Lincoln Highway’s history of divorcees and extended stay travellers, a similar path to the constant travel of the high-desert sagebrush. The monochromatic colour palette features hunter green with neutral tones to add balance and contrast with a pop of peachy/coral, similar to a sunset over the Nevada landscape.
We used classical and minimal typography to blend the two font types to create sophistication while allowing a simplified J that can be applied anywhere.
Scalable design: The visual identity is easy for the team to apply across dozens of pieces of collateral, everything from door hangers to invoices to glassware.
Website: From scope through to UX structural design solutions and UI interface design, I built an on-brand digital experience that makes booking simple and integrates with the hotel’s systems.
Signage: I mapped the customer journey through the hotel to develop intuitive, friendly signage.This project involved everything from restoring original signage to creating new custom signs.
Customisable templates: Social media campaign templates, IG posts and Stories, and several menu templates allow the team to adapt and produce new ideas last minute.
The Outcome
I managed the project, including print, signage and digital developers, from start through to delivery. The Jesse receives ongoing recognition and was launched to great acclaim. Most importantly, it has been a commercial success in an overcrowded market and tough economy.
Accolades include a Gold ADDY and gold certificate for Integrated Branding from the American Adverting Awards in Silicon Valley. The Jesse continues to be featured in the press, from Forbes, Wallpaper*, Design Milk Travels, and Hospitality Design, to Schoolhouse.