Springhill Suites
A new and upscale brand voice for one Marriott's suite-style hotel brands.
A new and upscale brand voice for one Marriott's suite-style hotel brands.
Visual Design
As Sr. Art Director, I created and oversaw the execution of the new brand's touch points.
Over several months in 2015-2016
Marriott Creative & Content Marketing
Jessica Chakrin, Account Manager
Whitney Howell, Account Manager
Hyun-Soo Ko, Associate Creative Director
Roman Kuebler, Senior Production Artist
Holly Sheldon, Senior Copywriter
Marriott says, "SpringHill Suites is the largest all-suites style hotel brand in the upscale tier that delivers industry-leading service to guests enthusiastic about travel." As the properties began elevating their suites and services to align with their market of business travelers who enjoy treating themselves, the brand visuals and tone needed to match the new on-site identity.
I joined the Marriott creative team soon after an external agency proposed the new brand direction. Although the design was beautiful, we soon realized that it had some technical issues and cost implications that made it challenging to implement realistically.
As Senior Art Director, I managed the launch of the new brand while solving design challenges, constraints, budgets, and timelines. Working closely with creative and brand team members (especially with my production partner Roman Kuebler,) I successfully launched a comprehensive suite of materials on time and under budget by $30,000.
Flexible, surprising, and comprehensive, the SpringHill Suites brand voice contains visual elements that create a vividly inviting and stylishly smart look and feel at every touchpoint.
Just as the little things add up to a great experience during a SpringHill Suites stay, every brand material helps build a larger, more meaningful story about who the brand is, why they're different, and why guests should care.
One of the main design elements is the repeated triangular pattern. To maintain a sense of refinement and continuity across materials, I developed a series of design considerations for how they should be used—from the number of triangles to their scale, position, and color.
Although the fractal pattern is beautiful, we soon realized it couldn't be used on many materials due to production or cost limitations. After ideating and presenting several alternatives, the creative and brand teams agreed on this simple and practical design element to supplement the fractal pattern.
A central theme behind the new brand is the idea of "a little extra"—that there are pleasant surprises when guests stay at Springhill Suites. I incorporated that idea of surprise into the designs.
I developed a comprehensive 80-page brand guide for all internal and external stakeholders to reference. Applying all of the knowledge I gained over the creation of its launch, the brand guide helps retain consistency and clarity for any creator.
Throughout the ten-month project, I worked closely with creative and brand team members to ensure everyone loved the outcome and understood the rationale behind design decisions. It was a highly collaborative effort that resulted in a refined suite of materials and a clear brand guide that would help maintain its design integrity. Despite the unexpected challenges related to the complexity of the design, the project still concluded on time and under budget.
