The project started without a name. The ask was to create one, then build a visual identity around it for a new group travel property in New Orleans.
It needed to be memorable and connect to the city without relying on the usual clichés as well as appeal to groups coming for very different reasons.
The property was designed around people traveling together. Family reunions, bachelor weekends, festivals and groups of friends coming to experience the city. Larger three to five bedroom units, a rooftop view of the skyline and a streamlined mobile experience made it feel less like a traditional hotel and more like a home base for exploring New Orleans.
The client wanted the stay to be memorable, but never get in the way of why people came. The bigger goal was to become a small part of someone’s journey and give them a place that helped send them out into the city.
That created a pretty specific balancing act. The brand needed personality without feeling themed. It had to connect to New Orleans without being location based. And because the long term vision reached beyond one property, the name and identity needed room to travel.
ÂME ERATO
Partnered on
Naming
Brand Strategy
Creative Direction
Logo Design
Visual Identity
Custom Typography
Illustration
Color
Brand Applications
Industry
Hospitality
Own the feeling, not the address
Research showed most of the competition was owning a person. A place. A piece of history.
We could own the reason people come.
The workshop kept returning to what travel actually feels like. Breaking routine. Creative freedom. Social energy. Discovery. The chance to be someone a little different for a few days.
That felt a lot more interesting than building another brand around where the building happened to be. So the territory became emotion, creativity, wanderlust and fantasy.
All things that feel very New Orleans without having to say New Orleans every five seconds.
A name with a little soul
That thinking led to ÂME, the French word for soul. It gave us a subtle connection to New Orleans while staying away from another literal location based name. The name was short and expressive with enough room to grow beyond the city.
There was also a more personal idea hiding inside it. AM suggests becoming while ME brings it back to the individual. That idea became Wander to Be Found, a line about exploring somewhere new and maybe discovering something about yourself along the way.
Bringing a muse to life
Erato, the muse of lyric poetry, became the creative force behind the identity.
She gave us a way to bring rhythm, movement and imagination into the brand without leaning on familiar New Orleans imagery. The curves of her lyre helped shape the visual direction of the circumflex and became a small signature detail that could carry the idea. Her name also helped reinforce the location.
Project Outcome
A brand with room to wander
The final brand gave the property a clearer place in the market. Elevated enough to feel special, but relaxed enough for groups who came to actually enjoy the city. Contemporary and expressive without becoming overly designed or themed.
It gave ÂME its own kind of hospitality experience.
Wander to be found
What started as a naming project became a point of view.
The project helped exploration and self discovery become something the property could own.
ÂME may be in New Orleans but the feeling does not have to stay there… and that’s a recipe for success.
“Everything went smoothly from the beginning.”
Sam MPartner, ÂME