Studio Allston Hotel

Brand identity and environmental graphics for a Boston boutique hotel that blends clean typography, bold graphics and chaotic collage art to create a uniquely energetic experience. Proportion worked with Spot on Ventures along with The Davis Companies to help turn a tired hotel at the bottom of the TripAdvisor rankings into a boutique, art-forward hospitality experience that embodies the creative spirit of Boston’s off-beat Allston neighborhood. We initially conceptualized three brand strategies each with different names and programmatic options – the structured gallery, the chaotic workshop, and the institute, a place for creative exploration and experimentation. The institute direction was pushed forward with the name “Studio Allston Hotel” and tagline, “Stay Outside the Frame” which speaks to both the hotel’s proximity to Boston’s city center, and acts as the mission and overall charge for the project.

Named after an artist and poet, Allston is a unique, blended community continually finding balance between the weirdos, misfits, creatives, geniuses, artists, musicians, businesses, and universities. Often times you’ll find somebody who embodies all of that. That is what this hotel brand is all about.

To illustrate the layered composition and creative energy of Allston, we created an identity that circles around collaged brand art. The art harmoniously blends imagery, text, sketch, and paint along with layers of fun, cheeky elements like text that reads “named best hotel in the USA, by me, the person designing this.” The art is balanced with a refined logo depicting an abstracted “SA” breaking from a square frame, providing a “framework” from which custom wayfinding icons were created.

Thanks to the development team, Dyer Brown, Isenberg Projects, OJB, Travel Tripper, Highgate, Providence Painted Signs, and the countless, super talented artists for the special collaboration that helped create such a unique brand and hotel experience.

Select photography from Christine Gatti