Estrella Montana - Boutique Resort

🌵 Estrella Montana: Ranch and Resort

Brand Identity Design | Passion Project

Project Overview

Nestled at the crossroads of the sun-drenched Southwest and the breezy ease of Mediterranean living, Estrella Montana is a conceptual boutique ranch and resort that invites guests to slow down, disconnect, and rediscover what it means to feel grounded.

This branding passion project explores a refreshed identity for a fictional hospitality brand—one that honors its rustic ranching roots while offering a luxurious, serene escape for the modern traveler. More than just a logo suite, the brand experience was designed to feel personal, earthy, and effortlessly elegant—like a ranch retreat curated by a stylish, soulful host.

The Challenge

How do you make a ranch feel luxurious—without stripping away its soul?

The core challenge was positioning Estrella Montana as both grounded and elevated. The resort needed to appeal to a younger, wellness-oriented audience looking for something beyond traditional desert destinations. This wasn’t about cowboy clichés or dude ranch nostalgia—it was about elegant outdoor living with texture, heritage, and depth.

The creative problem to solve: merge old-world rustic charm with modern, boutique refinement—without leaning too far into either extreme.

Strategy & Concept Development

The strategy began with positioning the brand as “affordable luxury for the wild-hearted.” This guided the development of every visual and verbal decision, with a focus on:

Designing for experience-first travelers: people who value privacy, intentionality, and sensory details

Celebrating place, not just aesthetic: evoking the textures of terracotta, horse leather, adobe, and sun-faded sagebrush. 

Balancing posh and grounded: capturing the essence of a wealthy ranch matriarch who wears boots with her designer bag. Strategically, the identity had to feel human. Not mass-market. Not polished to the point of sterility. This was about modern simplicity with personality—something small-batch, sun-soaked, and utterly transportive.

Logo & Identity System

The logotype combines soft, rounded modern letterforms with rustic accents—creating a look that’s elegant but unpretentious. The custom star icon, inspired by the brand’s name “Estrella” (Spanish for star), anchors the mark in cultural and regional storytelling.

The full suite includes:

Primary Logo: Wordmark with star and mountain motif

Secondary Logo: Stacked version with bilingual tagline lockup

Logomark: A standalone rustic star icon, used as a stamp or brand marker

Illustrative Brand Elements: Cactus line art, adobe building silhouettes, and hand-drawn Spanish tile patterns

Each piece of the system was designed to be modular, versatile, and textured—just like the land the brand is rooted in.

Color, Typography & Visual Language

The palette was built to echo the natural world—sunset skies, weathered terracotta, dust-kissed sagebrush, and desert rock:

Terracotta Red: warmth, heritage, grounded energy

Rust Orange: desert sun, hospitality, vibrance

Deep Olive Green: plant life, richness, calm

Sage Green: serenity, softness, breath

Sand: earth, neutrality, balance

Typography blends a clean modern serif for headlines with a soft geometric sans for body copy—creating an approachable sophistication.

Graphic accents include minimalist icons, hand-drawn elements, and white space used generously to convey stillness and open air.

Applications & Mockups

From touchpoints to textures, the brand was designed to be felt as much as seen. Applications explored include:

Branded guest welcome kits

Luxury glamping tent signage and horse stable plaques

Scented candle packaging and ranch-made wellness goods

Stationery and menus for the ranch kitchen

Each mockup reflects the balance of high design and handcrafted charm. Visual storytelling remained a key principle—inviting viewers to imagine themselves there.

Conclusion / Reflection

Estrella Montana is a love letter to the American Southwest—one that’s been updated for a new generation of travelers who crave reconnection, comfort, and quiet luxury.

While conceptual, this project embodies the creative challenge of blending brand heritage with contemporary relevance. It was an exercise in restraint, storytelling, and intentional detail—all with the goal of creating a brand that doesn’t just look beautiful, but feels like a place you want to return to