For over 40 years, Sila Developments has been involved in shaping Nashville’s hotel landscape. They partnered with ST8MNT to collaborate on an exciting new project—Motif—a boutique apartment-style hotel positioned in the heart of one of the city’s most prolific neighborhoods, Music Row. The engagement resulted in a re-envisioned visual brand identity for the Motif on Music Row hotel, guest collateral concepts, signage design and full website for the hotel’s official launch in late 2023.

The client had a previous logo iteration that did not represent the brand well, so we went to work on the logomark and typography. The logomark developed for Motif on Music Row was crafted to represent the letter “M” while concurrently to the hotel’s connection to the city with attributes that resemble the head and stem of staggered music notes. The curvatures in the logo and letterforms of the wordmark give it a distinct sophistication while still bearing qualities of approachability and warmth. It’s accommodated by a dynamic elements in an identity system that strikes an exceptional balance between contemporary and retro. A set of patterns that further utilize the brand’s logo, typography and repeating concentric circles reminiscent of a spinning vinyl record.