An Austin real estate developer, DEN Property Group (the guys behind The Native, The Mohawk, and Austin Surf Company) purchased the former home of Ma Ferguson, Texas’s first female governor, in order to turn it into a boutique hotel. They had no name or brand, all they knew was that they wanted the hotel to honor the legacy of Ma Ferguson.
As I began the brand identity process, I knew I wanted to choose a name that captured the rich history of Texas. While conducting research, I worked with a local historian and visited relevant museums and historical sites, eventually landing on a handful of names rooted in the region’s heritage. I presented a handful of names to the client, and they went with our top suggestion: The Miriam, inspired by Ma Ferguson’s first name.
Ma Ferguson was famous for throwing lavish parties attended by many of her friends. With that in mind, I decided to create a visual language that communicated the extravagance of the Roaring Twenties with a Wild West aesthetic. I designed a primary mark, secondary marks, signage, coasters, business cards, and letterhead for notes, invoices, and formal communications. At the end of the brand identity process, the client had a fully-designed, unique visual brand language, physical artifacts and collateral inspired by the culture of 1920s Texas, and a clear understanding of how to execute the brand across channels.
