MarQueen Hotel
Client: Metropolitan Management
Management: Columbia Hospitality
Interior Design: Cusack + Co Interiors
Hotel Photography: CASS Photo
PROJECT TYPE
Rebrand / Hospitality
Objective
The MarQueen Hotel has been part of Seattle’s story since 1918, when it was built as the Seattle Engineering School to house students training at Henry Ford’s assembly plant. Over a century later, following a comprehensive renovation led by Cusack + Co Interiors, the MarQueen needed a brand that could hold all of that history without being weighed down by it. Working in close collaboration with the interior design vision, we developed an inspiration board that bridged the hotel’s industrial roots with a modern, eclectic sensibility, then built a full brand identity and style guidelines toolkit that the hospitality team could run with independently.
Our Role
• Brand Identity
• Brand Guidelines
• Logo Variations
• Brand Elements + Patterns
• Typography System
• Photography Style Direction
• Brand Toolkit for In-House Use
The Story
Over a hundred years of history lives in this building — from blacksmiths and Model T’s to the Tin Lizzie Lounge and guestrooms layered with local art and vintage character. The MarQueen has always known how to be both of its time and ahead of it. The rebrand was built to honor that quality: witty, warm, rich with detail, and genuinely unlike anything else on Queen Anne Hill.
The inspiration board was developed in close conversation with Cusack + Co’s interior direction, creating a seamless bridge between the physical spaces and the brand’s visual language. The mood was eclectic and layered — rich hues, pattern on pattern, a paparazzi-flash playfulness tempered by real class. The kind of brand that rewards a closer look and makes you want to stay a little longer.
Brand Direction
The brand guidelines were built to put the full toolkit in the hospitality team’s hands — logo variations, brand elements, patterns, typography, and photography direction all documented clearly enough to execute print collateral and the website in-house, without the brand drifting from the original vision.
Brand Toolkit
