Recently, Artisan Colour earned the opportunity to work with “America’s Most Innovative Hotelier,” Ben Bethel. In 2016, Artisan Colour began printing digital art for The Clarendon, a hotel and spa in downtown Phoenix.
The Clarendon has been named “Most Popular Hotel” and “Best Value Hotel,” among other awards. We were honored to be chosen as a print supplier for The Clarendon’s two million dollar renovation project. You can read more about the remodel in this article from the PhoenixBusiness Journal.
Printing Digital Art for The Clarendon Hotel
We printed 172 panels for The Clarendon. Ben provided us with five vector files, meaning the artwork was 100% scalable, without losing any quality. These are 5′ x 5′ Direct to Acrylic 1/4″ prints, mounted with stainless steel standoffs.
Below, you'll see the printing process in action.
Visiting The Clarendon
Because we’re a local Phoenix-Scottsdale-based commercial printer, we were able to stop by The Clarendon to take a look around, and to see our prints in their final location!
After a quick tour of the exterior, we peeked into a few rooms where our prints had been installed. These 1950’s inspired rooms were spacious, well-lit, and full of color. We also enjoyed playing with all of the touch lamps!
For the artwork installation process, we worked with the client to install 30 prints a week over six weeks. Because this is a hotel, we could only install prints in rooms that weren’t booked for that particular day.
Interview with Ben Bethel, Hotelier
Q: Can you tell us what sets The Clarendon apart from other hotels in Phoenix?
A: The Clarendon Hotel and Spa is a local landmark. When The Clarendon originally opened in 1975, the hotel was specifically designed to be an independent, non-franchised, non-branded hotel. Some have said that this makes it the first boutique hotel in the country! In 1976, it was the site of the tragic car-bombing of Pulitzer nominated Arizona Republic Reporter Don Bolles, a very historic event in Arizona history. To this day, The Clarendon remains one of only two boutique hotels in Phoenix, the 5th largest city in the country.
Q: Where did you get the inspiration for the images we’ve printed for you?
A: As The Clarendon matures, we’ve been trying to keep the property relevant and up-to-date. We used to stick with original local art, and still do in many areas of the hotel’s guest rooms and public areas, including some great Blue Chip art by Bill Dambrova that’s currently in our lobby. With the guest rooms, it was time for a complete refresh. We felt that the entire industry went towards an industrial look right before the Great Recession – bare concrete floors, exposed pipes and ductwork, industrial lighting, muted earth tones, etc. – and people are just so tired of the look. Guests want carpet again and they want color again. So we started searching for images – but the biggest challenge was in trying to find images that could be blown up to 60″x 60″ without any degradation of image quality, and that narrowed everything down to vector images. Our inspiration came from my visits to the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Tate Museum in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris… I wanted it to pop!
Artisan & The Clarendon
Q: How did you find Artisan?
A: We’d come across Artisan during a previous project where we incorporated the signature “Clarendon Stripes” into guest room artwork about two years ago. They did a fantastic job and stood behind their work, and Artisan’s price/value combination was perfect.
Q: What do you like about working with Artisan?
A: They’re patient with me, for sure! No high pressure sales, and they just waited for me to select images… and to say that I went through thousands of possible images before narrowing the project down to these final images is an understatement!
Q: What are your goals for the hotel, and how will Artisan help you meet those goals?
I started the hotel in 2004 with zero experience in the industry. My initial goal was to create something that would make midtown Phoenix a better place to live, work, play, and stay. The hotel was one of the largest sources of crime in the Metro Phoenix area at the time. Businesses and residents were moving out of the area just because of the activity at the hotel. Now we’re one of the hottest neighborhoods around. I’d like to think that we had a part in making Midtown Phoenix what it is today. I’m now in my 14th year of owning and operating the hotel, and I think it’s time to pass the baton on to someone who can bring the hotel to the next level.
Check out The Clarendon on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
To learn more about our commercial printing services for your hotel, contact us today.
