Architecture design and photograph by Sittum Arquitectos

THE BRIEF

Marielena is a hotel located next to the central plaza of the small, yet touristic town of Cuatrociénegas, Coahuila.

THE CONFLICT

As much as Marielena wanted to renew the quaint hotel, they did not want to lose their day-to-day clientele. This meant that the rebrand couldn’t only target out-of-town tourists with a more sophisticated look. We needed to come up with something that would attract young newcomers and remind the locals of their nostalgic spot.

SOLUTION

Find common ground.

TYPE DESIGN

For this project, we got to explore all kinds of amazing inspiration, from the natural phenomenons that occur in this area, to the typographic roots found in the central plaza and the history and life of Marielena, the matriarch that led this family to where they are now.

In the town’s plaza, we found engraved benches that led us to designing not only the wordmark, but a complete font for the brand. This is used throughout the hotel in the main logo, in wayfinding, on the menu and social media content. This font became the common ground that reminds the locals of the surroundings that have been there for many years, but it also makes the brand modern enough to invite visitors to a sophisticated experience as well.

LOGO SYMBOL

Another important element of the redesign was to create an emblematic symbol for the hotel. This was completely inspired by the architectural renovation and shows how the hotel can be viewed from the central plaza.

Architectural design and render by Sittum Arquitectos.

Process and sketches of the hotel symbol.

Process & variations

We went through many sketches to get to the final result of the emblematic symbol depicting the hotel’s facade. We ended up using a representation of the hotel that has enough detail for recognition, but can also be simplified. Some variations have the 4C referring to the four ciénegas that inspire the town's name. We add the wordmark in an arc form on the top, which adds the "hip" sophisticated element to the brand’s aesthetic. And finally, we have variations for each area of the hotel, used with quotation marks to add another nostalgic element of how small towns in Mexico use these marks to name their small businesses. The responsive logo allows for different uses where the necessary information changes depending on the application.