A Les­son in Bou­tique Hotel Sig­nage: How sig­nage helped put Hotel Grin­nell on the map

A typ­i­cal hotel chain stay doesn’t make for much of an expe­ri­ence. From the décor to the ameni­ties to the din­ing — it takes a spe­cial ambiance to make it mem­o­rable. But bou­tique hotels often deliv­er the charm that tips the scales. 

Hotel Grin­nell offers a unique com­bi­na­tion of ​‘old-school’ charm and new-school design. From 1921 to 1978, the build­ing was home to a junior high and high school and lat­er became the City Offices and Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter. Angela Har­ring­ton, for­mer Pres­i­dent of the Grin­nell Cham­ber of Com­merce and Grin­nell Vis­i­tors and Con­ven­tion Bureau, had the cre­ative fore­sight to trans­form the old school into a chic bou­tique hotel that would also serve as a com­mu­ni­ty event cen­ter and des­ti­na­tion loca­tion in Grin­nell, Iowa. 

But get­ting to this point? That was a process – one that involved both inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or signage.

Fol­low­ing the Rules of Hotel Signage

One of the major con­sid­er­a­tions is ADA com­pli­ant hotel sig­nage. ADA acces­si­bil­i­ty can be espe­cial­ly tricky in his­toric ren­o­va­tion projects, but Hotel Grin­nell leaned on the ADA exper­tise of Kristin Adkins, one of our ADA experts. Kris­ten, expe­ri­enced in ADA-com­pli­ant sig­nage for many hotel projects like His­toric Park Inn and Ele­ment Hotel, works close­ly with ADA Guide­lines to avoid risk and improve acces­si­bil­i­ty for hotel guests. More impor­tant­ly, Kristin was able to match style with code to cre­ate a cohe­sive look.

To keep with­in brand­ing stan­dards, the signs need­ed to give a nod to the school­house theme but deliv­er impact in an upscale way. An indus­tri­al look of sim­ple, clean lines were rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the town’s his­tor­i­cal roots. The col­or palette? Under­stat­ed and mod­ern. Incor­po­rat­ing vary­ing ele­ments of the design, the end prod­uct com­pli­ment­ed the dis­tinc­tive interior. 

“It was a crit­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tion to have the mount­ed sig­nage with­in the para­me­ters of his­tor­i­cal ren­o­va­tions, such as no mod­i­fi­ca­tions to the build­ing façade and with­out mov­ing fix­tures and light sconces, for exam­ple,” says Ben Latimer, the Direc­tor of Dig­i­tal Media

“The biggest obsta­cle we faced was prob­a­bly in the wayfind­ing signs,” says Kristin Adkins, Design­Build Spe­cial­ist. ​“The sign design was meant to wrap the cor­ner, indi­cat­ing the direc­tion traf­fic is mov­ing. Each sign loca­tion had to be ver­i­fied to con­firm place­ment and there­fore, the bend of the signs and direc­tion of arrows for each mes­sage had to be accu­rate. Also, each line of direc­tion­al text is its own indi­vid­ual sign pan­el – pan­els were stacked to cre­ate mul­ti-lines sign mes­sages. This sign design, par­tic­u­lar­ly the way they were installed, required extra thought and design work to allow for an even, accu­rate instal­la­tion on site.” 

Why Does Design-Build Expe­ri­ence Matter?

This was a true design-build sig­nage project, which is noth­ing new to our team, that deliv­ers an all-encom­pass­ing solu­tion to the client. When design teams were brought on board, they first walked the space and devel­oped a design plan that would incor­po­rate the black and white, play­ing off the idea of a slate chalk­board. Our sign team was giv­en a design pre­sen­ta­tion doc­u­ment that showed over­ar­ch­ing themes and inspi­ra­tion for hotel inte­ri­or design looks and feels. 

Once the con­cept was firm­ly in place, the design was col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly tweaked and pro­duc­tion draw­ings were cre­at­ed for final approval before decid­ing on sign place­ment. From there, it was on to fab­ri­ca­tion and final­ly, instal­la­tion — over­all, a turnkey process for a client. 

The Details of Hotel Signage

All inte­ri­or signs were made from ¼ inch thick acrylic with sur­face paint and graph­ics. The signs have a paint­ed edge detail, mean­ing the col­or is dif­fer­ent from the sign face, which cre­ates a unique, cus­tom look. Giv­en the ​“cor­ner wrap” of the wayfind­ing signs, they were con­struct­ed with weld­ed alu­minum pan­els to cre­ate a sharp ​“L” to bend around the build­ing cor­ners. Bent acrylic would not have cre­at­ed an accu­rate enough curve for a tight, con­sis­tent fit when installed. The hor­i­zon­tal white lines, espe­cial­ly notice­able on the wayfind­ing signs, are rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the lined note­book paper chil­dren learned to write their ABCs on.

What was the Final Grade?

This project hon­ored his­to­ry while giv­ing the peo­ple of Grin­nell and vis­i­tors some­thing new to love. Hotel Grin­nell has won many awards, includ­ing the 2018 Preser­va­tion at its Best Award, Best Hos­pi­tal­i­ty 2018 and the 2018 Eco­nom­ic Impact Award, among others.