The Dorian
Strategy
Visual Identity
Brand Development, Storytelling
Creative Direction, Art Direction
Illustration, Collateral
The Mark of Craft
BRAND FOUNDATION FOR CALGARY'S FIRST GENUINELY LITERARY HOTEL
The Dorian is a 137-room boutique hotel in downtown Calgary — developed by Patricia Phillips of PBA Group and built around a concept that began in London, where Phillips spent enough time to believe that Calgary deserved something it didn't have: a hotel with genuine literary character and British wit. The concept draws from Oscar Wilde and, specifically, The Picture of Dorian Gray — an apt reference for a property that is both playful and precise, both local and deliberately European in its sensibility. The Wilde on 27, the hotel's rooftop restaurant and bar on the 27th floor with panoramic downtown views, holds a DiRoNA Award for Distinguished Restaurants. The Dorian carries a Michelin One Key rating, a Fodor's Best Hotels in North America recognition, and a 2025 Travel + Leisure World's Best nomination.
Considered developed the complete brand foundation for The Dorian — brand strategy, brand story, visual identity, collateral systems, and the articulation of Autograph Collection's "Mark of Craft" philosophy through a Calgary lens. The brief required holding the Oscar Wilde reference seriously enough to give the brand genuine depth, while ensuring the property read as a Calgary hotel rather than a themed concept. The Houndstooth pattern running through the property — a nod to Phillips's father's favorite suit — is the kind of specific, personal detail that distinguishes real brand storytelling from decoration.
The result positions The Dorian as exactly what Autograph Collection's framework requires: a place that is, in the brand's own language, exactly like nothing else.
