"When we redesigned McLemore's Highlands Course, it required a complete rebranding. IV Whitman was instrumental in capturing the essence of the revised golf experience. Through thoughtful and insightful questions, he was able to capture what makes McLemore so special and translate that into compelling messaging. His work spoke for itself. The word spread, visitors came, and their expectations were consistently exceeded."
Rees Jones, Golf Course Architect
Objective
McLemore Resort sits a thousand feet above a botanically diverse valley in northwest Georgia, on land where Cherokee and Scottish cultures have mingled for centuries. The design brief required a single mark that could hold both histories at once. The Cherokee Dogwood that dominates the mountain, and the Celtic cross carried in by Scottish settlers. A luxury golf resort brand identity built to feel native to this place, not applied to it.
Solution
ESQUE drew the Celtic cross into the negative space of the Cherokee Dogwood, so the two symbols read as one shape. The cross carries in the positive space, the dogwood in the negative. Each symbol is only visible because the other is there. The wordmark is set in Goudy Old Style, a 1915 Italian Renaissance revival that lends the hospitality program a quiet sense of age. The mark reads equally well etched into Corten steel, stamped into leather, or embroidered into a bag tag.
Special Features
The McLemore mark now appears at every scale of the resort. From the monument sign at the entrance drive, through the grand doorway of the clubhouse, onto the tee markers at the Highlands Course, and into apparel, merchandise, print advertising in the golf press, and even the signage on the McLemore Fire Station. It has become one of the most recognized marks in contemporary golf.
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