Chicago’s newly renovated Blackstone hotel is rich with cultural and political history. In celebration of this history, and the completion of an 8-year and $128-million renovation, Sockeye Creative gave The Blackstone a new identity system, which is a Mohawk Show 11 finalist.

The Blackstone has acquired the nickname “The Hotel of Presidents,” having hosted a Presidential Nominating Convention in 1920 and accommodating thirteen U.S. Presidents throughout the hotel’s 100 year lifetime. “The Blackstone has an amazing past with incredible stories. Not only did over a dozen U.S. Presidents stay there, but John Kennedy was at the hotel when he first heard about the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Al Capone held a Mob gathering there that was depicted in the film ‘The Untouchables,’” says designer Peter Metz, Sockeye Creative, Inc. “To honor this heritage, we combined a look of industrial Chicago with artistic style while weaving in the concept of stories throughout all the materials we created for the hotel.”

The creative team at Sockeye designed The Blackstone hotel’s stationery, door tags, feedback forms, as well as brochures and cards about the hotel’s history sprinkled with humor. Pieces of the collateral feature cartoons of the 13 Presidential guests, short stories from the hotel’s history, and quotes like, “We were good enough for Kate Hepburn. We should be good enough for your mother-in-law.”

Printing for the Blackstone Hotel collateral was done by Dynagraphics on Mohawk Solutions Warm White. “We wanted a paper that could match the unpretentious elegance that The Blackstone exudes,” says Metz. “There was nothing slick about it, just rich and textural. Mohawk Solutions was a natural fit.”

Client: The Blackstone, a Renaissance Hotel
Design Firm: Sockeye Creative
Designer: Peter Metz
Printing: Dynagraphics
Paper: Mohawk Solutions Warm White

Look for feature stories about the Best of Show winners on Felt & Wire. The Mohawk Show celebrates the beauty and brains of design and printing. Winners and finalists are chosen based on the following criteria: aesthetic value, content, paper usage, appropriateness, production quality and excellence of craft.

See a complete list of Mohawk Show 11 winners and finalists here.

Download a Mohawk Show 12 entry form here.