Ten rooms in a Victorian building on Bentinck Street in Glasgow's West End, priced at a hundred and six to a hundred and thirty eight pounds a night. Every room designed separately by a local interior designer, Harrison Spinks mattresses, vinyl players, breakfast included. Two owners opening their first property, with nothing to inherit and a build schedule already running.
CLIENT
CLIENT
Boutique 50
Boutique 50
INDUSTRY
INDUSTRY
Hospitality, Boutique Hotel
Hospitality, Boutique Hotel
ROLE
ROLE
Solo Brand Designer
Solo Brand Designer
TOOLS
TOOLS
TOOLS
Affinity Designer, Figma
Affinity Designer, Figma
YEAR
YEAR
YEAR
2020
2020
THE PROBLEM
THE PROBLEM
NO POSITIONING
NO POSITIONING
NO POSITIONING
NO IDENTITY
NO IDENTITY
NO IDENTITY
No previous identity, no assets, and a deadline set by the builders rather than by anyone in design.
No previous identity, no assets, and a deadline set by the builders rather than by anyone in design.
A restaurant can earn its reputation by being walked past. A hotel is chosen weeks in advance, from a screen, against forty other options in the same city.
So the identity had to be finished and convincing before a single guest stood in the doorway, and it had to work at the size of a thumbnail next to a chain.
A restaurant can earn its reputation by being walked past. A hotel is chosen weeks in advance, from a screen, against forty other options in the same city.
So the identity had to be finished and convincing before a single guest stood in the doorway, and it had to work at the size of a thumbnail next to a chain.
WHAT I FOUND
WHAT I FOUND
Everything clustered under a hundred pounds. Above it, nobody.
Everything clustered under a hundred pounds. Above it, nobody.
I mapped the Glasgow market by spend per night against how each property actually presents itself. Local guesthouses and the big chains sit between sixty and a hundred pounds, mid range at best. A handful of high end guesthouses and chain hotels push toward a hundred and twenty and stop.
Boutique 50 was going to open at around a hundred and thirty. On the map that is empty space. Nobody in the city was combining independent ownership with the visual confidence to hold that rate, and the brand was the thing that had to make the claim legible from a listings page.
I mapped the Glasgow market by spend per night against how each property actually presents itself. Local guesthouses and the big chains sit between sixty and a hundred pounds, mid range at best. A handful of high end guesthouses and chain hotels push toward a hundred and twenty and stop.
Boutique 50 was going to open at around a hundred and thirty. On the map that is empty space. Nobody in the city was combining independent ownership with the visual confidence to hold that rate, and the brand was the thing that had to make the claim legible from a listings page.
THE DECISION
THE DECISION
The building is Victorian. The brand is not.
The building is Victorian. The brand is not.
The obvious move is to echo the property. Cornicing, a serif with some history in it, heritage colours. That route puts a hotel straight in with every guesthouse in the city trading on the same period, and it is exactly the bracket the rate needed to clear.
So the identity owes the building nothing. A geometric wordmark, flat colour, and a set of patterns with no Victorian reference anywhere in them. The rooms already carry the period. The brand's job was to prove that all of it was chosen rather than inherited.
The obvious move is to echo the property. Cornicing, a serif with some history in it, heritage colours. That route puts a hotel straight in with every guesthouse in the city trading on the same period, and it is exactly the bracket the rate needed to clear.
So the identity owes the building nothing. A geometric wordmark, flat colour, and a set of patterns with no Victorian reference anywhere in them. The rooms already carry the period. The brand's job was to prove that all of it was chosen rather than inherited.
Working in a heritage building pulls you toward pastiche, and pastiche reads as a guesthouse. Contrast is what tells a guest somebody made decisions here. That is the thing the extra forty pounds a night actually buys.
THE SYSTEM
THE SYSTEM
ONE MARK
ONE MARK
ONE MARK
A FAMILY OF PATTERNS
A FAMILY OF PATTERNS
A FAMILY OF PATTERNS
Ten rooms that share nothing except the brand, so the brand had to carry variation without ever losing itself.
Ten rooms that share nothing except the brand, so the brand had to carry variation without ever losing itself.
The wordmark is a wide geometric sans, monoline and evenly weighted, with the O of Boutique drawn as a circle resting on a bar. That O lifts out and stands alone, which is what lets the brand sit on the back of a plate or the flap of an envelope at the size of a fingernail. The 50 sits in a solid block, so the address never separates from the name.
Deep teal, mustard, warm sand and off white. Then a family of patterns: chevrons, tessellated squares, drawn wave lines. Different rooms and different pieces can take different patterns and none of it stops being Boutique 50.
The wordmark is a wide geometric sans, monoline and evenly weighted, with the O of Boutique drawn as a circle resting on a bar. That O lifts out and stands alone, which is what lets the brand sit on the back of a plate or the flap of an envelope at the size of a fingernail. The 50 sits in a solid block, so the address never separates from the name.
Deep teal, mustard, warm sand and off white. Then a family of patterns: chevrons, tessellated squares, drawn wave lines. Different rooms and different pieces can take different patterns and none of it stops being Boutique 50.
The patterns are the part that actually answers the brief. One mark repeated everywhere would have fought ten different interiors. A family lets the brand change its clothes room by room and stay the same thing.
THE BRAND APPLICATION
THE BRAND APPLICATION
On the plate, the envelope, the card. Never quite the same twice.
On the plate, the envelope, the card. Never quite the same twice.
Business cards run the chevron along the edge with the rating and the Bentinck Street address on the reverse. Envelopes are teal with a tessellated liner inside. Tableware carries the wave pattern on the charger and the O alone on the plate. The press folder is uncoated kraft with the wordmark knocked out.
Material choices carried most of the weight, because nearly every brand touchpoint in a hotel is a physical object held in somebody's hand. A key card gets handled more times in a three night stay than the website gets opened in a year.
Business cards run the chevron along the edge with the rating and the Bentinck Street address on the reverse. Envelopes are teal with a tessellated liner inside. Tableware carries the wave pattern on the charger and the O alone on the plate. The press folder is uncoated kraft with the wordmark knocked out.
Material choices carried most of the weight, because nearly every brand touchpoint in a hotel is a physical object held in somebody's hand. A key card gets handled more times in a three night stay than the website gets opened in a year.
THE OUTCOME
THE OUTCOME
Seventy eight percent occupancy. Sixteen points above the city.
Seventy eight percent occupancy. Sixteen points above the city.
Seventy eight percent across the first full operating year, against a city average of sixty two. That is a ten room property with no chain distribution behind it and no loyalty scheme to fall back on, trading in the part of the map that was empty when we started.
The review score sits alongside it at 4.8, and the Instagram account passed two thousand two hundred followers inside eight months.
Seventy eight percent across the first full operating year, against a city average of sixty two. That is a ten room property with no chain distribution behind it and no loyalty scheme to fall back on, trading in the part of the map that was empty when we started.
The review score sits alongside it at 4.8, and the Instagram account passed two thousand two hundred followers inside eight months.
78%
78%
Average occupancy, first full operating year
Average occupancy, first full operating year
4.6 / 5
4.6 / 5
Guest review score, Google and Booking.com
Guest review score, Google and Booking.com
2,200+
2,200+
Instagram followers within eight months
Instagram followers within eight months
62%
62%
Glasgow city average occupancy, same period
Glasgow city average occupancy, same period
Occupancy in a ten room property moves on a handful of bookings, so one strong season carries more weight in that figure than it would in a larger hotel.
Occupancy in a ten room property moves on a handful of bookings, so one strong season carries more weight in that figure than it would in a larger hotel.
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Marko
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