Preserving the character of a Los Angeles legend while building the systems behind its next chapter.
00 / Overview
Sunset Marquis already possessed what most hotels work years to create: privacy, music history, cultural credibility, and a fiercely individual point of view. Across a 22-year relationship, Agency689 translated those qualities into a working hospitality brand across guest communications, property experiences, campaigns, digital, content, dining, music, and the daily decisions required to keep the brand coherent.
Role Creative Direction / Long-Term Brand Management
Client Sunset Marquis
Services Hospitality Brand Strategy / Visual Identity / Brand Management / Campaign Creative / Hotel Website Design / Photography / Video / Collateral / Event Creative
01 / Brand Idea
Musicians, artists, and travelers come for the discretion, gardens, and sense that something memorable might happen just out of view. The brand honors that tension: refined but relaxed, storied but active, and unmistakably Los Angeles without resorting to cliché.
02 / Brand System
A family of wordmarks, location lockups, stacked marks, and heritage elements gave the team the right expression for each setting, from a refined guest touchpoint to a campaign with more attitude.
Primary Wordmark
Location Lockup
Stacked Mark
Contemporary Tag
Heritage Mark
03 / Property Experiences
The system extended through Cavatina, BAR 1200, the courtyard pools, Nightbird Studios, and Live at Sunset Marquis. Each experience developed its own presence while remaining connected to the hotel.
Section 03A
A restaurant identity refined enough for the dining room and relaxed enough for an open-air garden inside Sunset Marquis.
Section 03B
A late-night identity with its own energy, grounded in the intimacy and music history that define the hotel.
Section 03C
A visual anchor for the property’s hidden-in-plain-sight mood: private, lush, and removed from the city just beyond the gates.
Section 03D
A working recording studio that keeps the hotel’s music legacy active rather than treating it as nostalgia.
Section 03E
Intimate performances that turn the property’s cultural pull into an experience shared by artists, guests, partners, and press.
04 / Campaign Creative
Rooms, dining, music, events, seasonal offers, and the property’s private moments demanded a steady supply of relevant ideas. A repeatable campaign approach made room for wit, glamour, and surprise while keeping each execution recognizably Sunset Marquis.
05 / Hotel Website Design
Clearer pathways helped guests explore rooms, villas, dining, music, wellness, events, and private experiences without flattening the hotel’s mythology. The responsive work received a Netty Award for Best Responsive Design.
Netty Award / Best Responsive Design
Sunset Marquis Hotel Website06 / Photography and Content
Architecture, people, food, music, and private celebrations were photographed as parts of one world: atmospheric, human, discreet, and useful across editorial, web, campaigns, social, press, and guest communications.
07 / Long-Term Impact
Over 22 years, the work gave Sunset Marquis continuity across rooms, dining, events, campaigns, content, and digital experiences. The longevity is part of the result: an evolving brand managed with judgment and respect for what made it valuable in the first place.