Hospitality
Design Guild
A guild, not a studio.
A brand identity that captured the guild model, positioning HDG as a curated network of master craftspeople, not just another design studio.
Hospitality Design Guild is different by design. They’re a guild, not a studio, and to better understand why this distinction matters, a brief history lesson is in order about what guilds are and why they exist.
Guilds began during the Middle Ages as a way for expert craftsmen in a myriad of trades to band together and showcase their talents. A collective of professionals operating under a shared standard of craft. Their expert-level work was highly regarded, and their efforts can be seen in every major architectural work completed in the last 1,000 years.
Hospitality Design Guild keeps the spirit of the guild alive today with an elite team of professionals working all over the world on some of the finest design projects in the hospitality space.
To honor their efforts, we created a design system for their brand that felt premium, bespoke, and modern.
Across every surface.
The system was built to flex across every surface the Guild lives on: A printed brochure tells the story of the practice and the individual projects that define it. A redesigned website carries the same narrative into digital.
A trade-show presence built to feel like a hotel lounge rather than a booth.
A standard of craft.
We extended the same standard of care to every piece of paper a Guild member puts in someone's hands.
A complete stationery system in deep navy and aged gold. Letterheads and folders that read like correspondence rather than collateral. Business cards designed to be kept. Event invitations, thank-you notes, and a direct mail program built for the long-cycle relationships hospitality work actually depends on.
The whole identity rolls up into a full brand book and guidelines system (typography, color, imagery, tone of voice, applications, and patterns) that lets every Guild member produce work that feels unmistakably part of the family.
Because that's what a guild is. A standard of craft you carry with you into every room you design.