St. Louis-based brand strategy and design firm CARTEL – Spanish for “poster” – is a nod to founder Carlos Zamora’s Cuban-American heritage and his background as an award-winning designer and illustrator. In 2021, his firm was hired to create brand identity work for the emerging Downtown North insight district, including the historic Globe and Post buildings that once housed the city’s two daily newspapers. Within four years, Zamora made the latter building CARTEL’s headquarters, writing a new chapter for his own business.
John Berglund, co-founder and managing partner of The StarWood Group, purchased and renovated the two buildings in 2019. It was Berglund who suggested that Zamora move his firm into the historic Post Building (formerly known as the Post-Dispatch Building), which includes the ornate southwest entrance, 900 N. Tucker, and the majestic former lobby of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and, before that, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. “It became clear that Carlos was interested in helping us change the narrative and elevate the region,” says Berglund. “In just a few short months, Carlos has brought more activity to that corner of the building than it has seen in more than a decade.”
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“The first time I set foot in this building, I felt the history and the intangible presence of Joe Pulitzer, which has been an inspiration since,” says Zamora.
When StarWood completed the adaptive reuse project in partnership with Trivers, CannonDesign, and Tarlton, they had preserved and highlighted the original architectural features of the Art Deco building, erected in 1930. Some of the most striking of those features–soaring ceilings and windows, book-matched travertine marble walls, and a wraparound terrazzo reception desk with built-in interior wood shelving–are on display in CARTEL’s new headquarters. The renovation also opened up a new main entrance for the building’s other occupants, including the business platform Square, on the northside, leaving the lobby and its adjoining mezzanine available to use as private office space.
“With all of that vertical space, it’s great for ideation,” says Zamora. “We have the solidity of the materials and all the permanence that brings.”
CARTEL designed the lobby as a collaborative and special event space, with long work tables topped with Art Deco-inspired Adam table lights by Vakkerlight. Other furniture, including an Eero Saarinen–inspired tulip table with Bertoia side chairs and a leather bench with hairpin legs, add a touch of modernism. Modway’s Sanguine velvet sectional sofa in dusty rose provides cozy but stylish seating.
Although CARTEL, particularly Zamora, specializes in posters, the enormous space gave the team room to dream. Zamora called his close friend and world-renowned fine art photographer Michael Eastman, who opened up his archive of large-scale photographs.
“I curated a selection from his series called Vanishing America that shows cities in different parts of the world…cities that have been in decay, like Havana has been,” Zamora says. “These places show a sensibility of both decay and humanity that is inspiring and that we hope inspires the way we develop the north [part] of the city.”
The images also include Eastman’s nature and landscape photography–those hang in the private offices behind the lobby. Zamora’s corner office is being turned into a podcast recording studio from which he’ll produce “Insight City,” a show dedicated to the burgeoning Downtown North district and its businesses.
With Eastman’s photos taking center stage, Zamora needed space for CARTEL’s colorful posters. Berglund suggested the walls of a large event space one flight of stairs down from the lobby. The walls of the Paperboat Gallery, as the space has been dubbed in honor of the company’s logo, help narrate CARTEL’s creative journey.
“It’s a beautiful space and now the city has a poster gallery,” Zamora says. “We can show our portfolio, but visitors can come and read a city by the poster art. Most of the posters have been created for local events and organizations.”
The tight-knit CARTEL team is already thriving in its historic new digs. “You feel good working in the space,” says chief operating officer Zach Gzehoviak. “It’s a place I want to be every day.”
