Sable Union — Hospitality, 2026
A members' club that never says the word exclusive
The category's whole vocabulary — curated, discerning, like-minded, elevated — had been used so thoroughly that it now signalled the opposite of what the client meant. So we banned it.
Context
Three buildings, one waiting list, no idea what to call it
The client had two working sites and a third in fit-out, an operating model that was genuinely unusual — membership is priced by use rather than by status — and a working title nobody liked.
Everything in the category sells access. This one sells the opposite: a building you can be in without performing. That is a hard thing to say without saying it badly.
The voice
A specimen, not a tone-of-voice deck
Rather than adjectives, we wrote the voice as a list of sentences the brand uses and sentences it will not, each with the reason attached. It is two pages. Staff actually read it.
“The east room is quiet until six.”
“Discover our curated sanctuary of calm.”
A fact a member can act on beats an atmosphere they have to take on trust.
“Membership is £94 a month. Guests are £12.”
“Membership is by invitation. Enquire for details.”
Withholding the price is the single clearest signal of the thing we are not.
“We got the lighting wrong in the library. It is being redone in March.”
“We are continually evolving our spaces.”
The club's whole proposition is that it behaves like a building, not a brand.
“No, the roof terrace is not bookable.”
“Roof terrace access is subject to availability.”
Softening a no makes members ask twice. It is a courtesy to be plain.
In the building
The identity is mostly made of nouns
There is no logo on the door of any of the three sites. There is a number, in the building's own house numerals, and a brass plate with the room names on it.
Room names do the work a brand language usually does: the Long Room, the Draught, the Second Kitchen, the Wash House. They are descriptive, they came from the buildings' actual histories, and they are the only proper nouns in the system.
Print is uncoated and unbranded except for a single graphite rule at the foot of the page. The club's name appears on the membership card, the bill and nowhere else.
“The list of things we are not allowed to say is the most useful document the business has. It settles arguments in about four seconds.”
Outcome
What changed
2 pages
Complete voice system
Replacing a 60-page tone-of-voice document nobody had opened since induction.
0
Logos on any of the three buildings
House numerals and a brass room plate instead. Agreed with the landlord in week nine.
3 sites
One system, no site-specific variants
Room names differ; nothing else does.
What we would do differently
Banning the category's vocabulary worked internally and made recruitment advertising unexpectedly difficult — job boards are built on exactly those adjectives. We should have written the careers voice as a separate specimen rather than assuming the rules transferred.
Strategy
Tobias Renn, Ines Aldaz
Design
Kasia Wrońska
Environments
Cai Ferreday, Beatriz Mourão
Words
Nour Bahri
Next project
Northmoor Wind
One identity carrying an offshore wind programme through investors, coastal towns and the engineers it still has to hire.
