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We make brands that feel inevitable.

Every project begins with listening. We understand a client’s story is the first step to crafting something meaningful. We believe strategy design isn’t just a process; it’s a collaboration grounded in trust and intuition, and the most compelling work emerges when personal identity meets creative clarity. Because no two clients are the same, neither is the solution. Regardless of scale, our mission is to transform visions into strategies that resonate, endure, and feel unmistakably personal.

Cloudland: A Curio Collection by Hilton — Documentary Trailer · View Case Study ↗ · Production: Superchief, LLC
Showing featured projects. Sorted by relevance to hospitality & brand identity.
Selected Work

Crafted with
intention.

Selected hospitality, luxury, and lifestyle brand identity projects.

Services

Full-spectrum creative
partnership.

Nine integrated brand strategy and design disciplines, delivered in-house.

From first positioning conversation to final signage installation.

As a boutique studio, we bring the personalized attention and creative agility that your brand deserves. Our integrated approach seamlessly blends compelling copywriting and storytelling with striking graphic design, custom art curation, and professional photography and videography to create cohesive brand experiences that captivate and convert.

Whether you are launching something new or evolving an established presence, ESQUE delivers the strategic insights and artistic excellence that transforms good brands into fresh, unforgettable ones.

9 disciplines. One integrated team. No outsourcing.
01
Brand Positioning & Strategy
Uncover what makes you distinct. Define the market position everything else rests on.
Explore
02
Creative Direction
Visual leadership ensuring every touchpoint tells one coherent story.
Explore
03
Visual & Graphic Design
Logos, type systems, palettes, and collateral — beautiful and systematically scalable.
Explore
04
Website Design
Digital experiences with the same craft as the brands they represent.
Explore
05
Copywriting & Storytelling
Words that capture your voice and move people to action.
Explore
06
Product, Collateral & Package Design
Tangible brand touchpoints — packaging, stationery, menus, and collateral that extend the identity into the physical world.
Explore
07
Signage & Wayfinding
Environmental graphics extending brand into physical space.
Explore
08
Art Curation
Sourcing original artwork that reinforces brand narrative in hospitality spaces.
Explore
09
Video & Photography
Brand films, property tours, architectural and lifestyle photography.
Explore
Featured Film
Flatrock Motor Club — 1 Minute Film · View Case Study ↗ · Production: Andy Jeffers, Sports & Entertainment Media, LLC
Process

How we work.

01
Discover
Immerse in your brand and market
02
Strategy
Position and define direction
03
Design
Craft the identity system
04
Deliver
Production-ready launch
05
Support
Ongoing creative partnership
IV Whitman
Founder

IV WHITMAN

As a brand strategist, designer, and storyteller, IV has more than 25 years of experience helping organizations define, articulate, and elevate their brands.

As Co-Creator of McLemore Resort, a mountaintop golf destination and luxury hospitality brand in the Southeast, he played a central role in shaping the resort’s identity, guiding its marketing strategy, and supporting more than $250 million in capital raised toward a project valued at over $1 billion.

As Executive Vice President of Brand Development at Scenic Land Company, IV led brand strategy, marketing, and creative initiatives for developments including McLemore, Cloudland, and Brow Wood. His work has been instrumental in positioning these destinations as leading lifestyle and hospitality brands.

Throughout his career, IV has partnered with national and global clients such as Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s, Sonic Drive-In, ServiceMaster, Baptist Health, March of Dimes, and The Nature Conservancy.

His work has earned recognition from the Account Planning Group and the Miami Ad School. ESQUE partners with top national talent, from videographers and photographers to fabricators and specialists to bring brand visions to life.

25+
Years of experience
80+
Brands built
10
Creative disciplines
100%
Founder-level access

Over the years, I’ve collaborated with marketing and branding professionals across the country and around the world, IV Whitman stands among the very best.

Rees Jones

Golf Course Architect

Curation

Bespoke
curation.

Art, photography, and immersive environments curated for hospitality spaces.

Art, photography, libraries, and immersive environments — curated to reinforce brand narrative.

We have worked with numerous acclaimed artists, photographers, and songwriters to mirror the emotional and aesthetic goals of McLemore, Cloudland, Hilton Worldwide, FlickMars, and other national clients.

Our most recent project, a 240,000-square-foot hotel and conference center, required a portfolio of over 275 color and black-and-white photographs to populate guest rooms and public spaces. To showcase the area’s natural beauty, we commissioned former National Geographic Senior Photo Editor Kim Hubbard to create portraits of the flora, fauna, and landscapes around the hotel.

Curation has also included the creation of a 700-plus volume library located in the Cloudland hotel, an annual singer-songwriter series for the McLemore Resort, which has attracted dozens of Grammy-winning artists, and even a premium cigar humidor for McLemore’s Clubhouse.

Reception
Cloudland
Reception at Cloudland
Elevator Lobby
Cloudland
Elevator Lobby at Cloudland
Library
Cloudland
The Library at Cloudland
Clubhouse
McLemore Resort
Clubhouse Entrance
Selah Spa
Selah Spa
Hallway at Selah Spa
The Pocket
The Pocket Cafe
The Gallery Wall
Walnut Wall
Cloudland
Monumental Topographic Walnut Wall
Selah Sign
Selah Spa
Entrance Sign at Selah Spa
Auld Alliance
Auld Alliance
Entrance Sign at Auld Alliance
The Pocket
The Pocket Cafe
The Large Fern at The Pocket Cafe
Latest thinking on branding, strategy, and design craft.
Journal

Insights &
perspectives.

Expert thinking on brand strategy, identity design, and creative leadership.

InnovationMar 26, 2026
Borealis: How a Constellation of Words Becomes a Brand Name
Inside Borealis, the interactive naming tool ESQUE built to turn brand exploration into something visual, intuitive, and genuinely creative.
StrategyMar 19, 2026
The Listening Session
The first meeting is never really about design. The work that determines whether the eventual design will be genuinely good or merely competent happens in the questions asked before the sketchpad opens.
BrandingMar 12, 2026
Why Every Brand Needs a System, Not Just a Logo
The logo is not the brand. A brand is the totality of every encounter a customer has with a business, from the entrance sign to the room key card to the font on the menu.
DesignMar 5, 2026
What the Physical World Teaches Us About Digital Design
There is a discipline to physical design that digital design sometimes forgets. The irreversibility of material decisions produces a particular kind of rigor.
StrategyFeb 26, 2026
Naming a Place
Names are the most consequential design decision most businesses never think of as design. How the name Cloudland was discovered in the morning sky.
BrandingFeb 19, 2026
The Mark Behind the Mountain
There are logos. And then there are marks. Images so rooted in a specific truth that they could not belong to anyone else. The McLemore mark is a case study in exactly that process.
DesignFeb 12, 2026
From Idea to Identity: How Meaningful Design Brings Business to Life
There is a moment in every business before the logo, before the website, before the signage, when an idea exists only as conviction. That is where design begins.
StrategyFeb 5, 2026
Seamless Rebrands and CRM Integration for Small Business
How to redesign everything without losing a single lead. ESQUE’s proprietary migration technology delivers pixel-perfect platform transitions with full HubSpot CRM integration.
BrandingJan 29, 2026
How to Start Building Your Brand
Building a brand properly starts much earlier, and much deeper, than most people expect. The visual stuff becomes almost obvious once the thinking underneath it is solid.
StrategyJan 8, 2026
When It’s Time to Rebrand
Every brand has a shelf life. Not because good design goes bad, but because businesses grow, shift, and evolve in ways that their original identity was never built to accommodate.
DesignJan 15, 2026
Why Bespoke Logo Design Still Matters in the Age of AI
A logo is not decoration. It is a compressed communication device, one that is asked to do an enormous amount of work in an extraordinarily small space.
BrandingJan 22, 2026
When It’s Time to Build Your Brand
There’s a moment that almost every growing small business eventually reaches. It tends to arrive quietly, in the form of a nagging dissatisfaction.
StrategyJan 1, 2026
Timeless Rules of Branding
Branding isn’t a luxury that comes after success. It’s one of the quiet engines driving success in the first place.
Start a Project

Tell us about
your vision.

Every partnership starts with a conversation. No pitch — just listening.

What’s your name?
What kind of project?
Tell us what you’re envisioning.
How should we reach you?
Email
hello@esque.design
Based in
Chattanooga, TN
Serving clients nationwide
Response time
Same day
Usually within a few hours