Selected work
Solene
A considered brand identity for Solene — a boutique hospitality brand — from an S ligature and editorial serif to guest collateral, wayfinding and a booking experience that feels like arriving.
Situation
Artefact91 built the brand identity for Solene, a considered Caribbean hospitality experience built around architecture, locality, ease and quiet luxury. The brief was to make the guest experience visible at every touchpoint.
The place stays unnamed. The identity carries it instead. A refined typographic voice, a warm palette taken from clay, olive, linen and brass, and an understated graphic language create continuity from first discovery to arrival and stay.
A distinct sense of place without resort clichés. No palms, no turquoise, no sunset script.
Let architecture speak. Louvre shadows, stone, arches and a low sun on still water do the work.
Every object should feel made. Emboss, brass foil and linen stock over print effects.
Decision
The monogram is a bespoke S ligature. Its upper bowl is the sun. Its lower bowl is the sun's reflection in still water. A fine brass horizon runs between them. Both bowls share one geometry, so the mark reads as a letter first and a landscape second.
The wordmark and monogram share a hairline weight, so they lock up at any size without one overpowering the other. Colour is applied by part. The sun takes terracotta, the reflection espresso and the horizon brass. On materials, the whole mark goes to a single foil or a blind emboss.
Clay, olive, linen, wood and brass.
Each colour is specified as a material first. Terracotta reads as fired clay and plaster. Olive is dyed linen. Ivory is uncoated cotton stock. Espresso is oiled wood. Brass is a muted foil that is never used for small text on light grounds.
Bodoni Moda, 400 to 500 with italic. A high-contrast editorial serif for headlines, room names and the wordmark. Optical sizing keeps hairlines intact at small sizes.
Hanken Grotesk, 300 to 600. A clean contemporary sans for information, labels and interface. Tracked capitals for wayfinding and labels.
The first thing in your hand.
Collateral is where the guest touches the brand. Stocks are uncoated and heavy. The mark is foiled or blind embossed. Colour sits in the material, so print stays quiet.
The sleeve is olive linen-finish board with the monogram and wordmark in brass foil. The card is ivory, with a blind-debossed wordmark and a single terracotta sun on its horizon line. Room number is written by hand inside the sleeve flap.
The amenity range uses the palette as material families. Bottles carry the colour, labels stay ivory, caps are brass. The tote crops the monogram large, so the horizon becomes a graphic band.
Signs that sit in the wall.
Wayfinding is cut, inset or cast into the building. Numbers are set large in the serif. Directions use tracked sans capitals with a single arrow. Nothing is backlit. Brass panels are brushed so they catch daylight without glare.
Booking that feels like arriving.
The site opens on the arch. Room choice comes before dates, so guests choose a feeling first. The booking bar sits on the hero and asks for three things. There are no prices on the landing page. Every route ends at Check availability.
Eight rooms around a stone courtyard. Linen, shade and still water, a short walk from the sea.
Hairline rules, generous line height and one action colour. Fired clay buttons pass AA at 6.07:1.
Louvre shadows are drawn in CSS at low opacity. They move across the page sections like daylight through shutters.
Rates appear only after dates are chosen. The landing page sells the place, not a tariff.
Movement
The campaign sells time and atmosphere. Headlines are short and set in the serif with one italic turn. The arch and the low sun repeat across formats, so every piece reads as the same place.
A sense of place, thoughtfully expressed.
Solene shows how one small mark and a material palette can carry a guest from first discovery to the room door. The identity brings together architecture, craft and a calm typographic voice. Nothing shouts, and every touchpoint feels like the same place.
