Marlon Tate

The Twenty One Hotel sits in the upscale suburb of Kifisia, Athens — an area better known for quiet elegance than cultural landmarks. With 21 carefully designed rooms and a restaurant locals treat like a well-kept secret, the hotel had plenty going for it. But when the team behind luxury brand Moda Bagno took over in 2021, they saw an opportunity — and a challenge. How do you compete with boutique hotels in Athens’ historic center when your location offers none of the built-in cultural cachet?

Marlon Tate was invited to design and art direct the hotel’s new branding, marketing collateral, signage, and create an entirely new brand narrative — one bold enough to relaunch the property and redefine what a luxury uptown hotel could be.

The new brand narrative reflected our strategic ambition to reposition the Twenty One from a “lovely place to stay” to a cultural attraction itself. The branding is anchored around our tagline ‘luxury is your culture’ and draws upon 1960s conceptual art and concrete poetry. We produced 21 welcome videos inspired by video art installations and designed a signage system straight out of a contemporary art museum. The result? A suburban hotel that doesn’t need the Acropolis — because it became its own cultural landmark.