16 February 2012 Portfolio Night 2012
31 January 2012 Making of a Butcher
The first step in the process was finding the right name for the new restaurant. The client explained that this was going to be a type of chophouse and it was going to be in a high-profile location directly across from U.S. Airways Center at CityScape which helped get things started.
Some of the names we came up with were inspired by many of the downtown Phoenix streets which are named after former United States Presidents. Other names came from the proximity of the restaurant to many legal buildings and the amount of legal professionals that work downtown and would be enjoying “power lunches” at this new concept. We also discovered some interesting things about the founder of Phoenix, Jack Swilling.
A few of the names we liked the most when all was said and done where: Chophouse Republic, Swilling’s Mill, The Chopping Block, Chuck & Porter’s, The Hung Jury, Railbird, Refined Bovine, Backdoor Bluff, The Sweet Klink and Moo & Brew.
We then took the names we liked the most and started sketching ideas looking for what would feel right. Just like with the naming process, we tried to flush out a lot of ideas and looks so we could cover more ground. From those sketches we decided on which ideas to move forward and actually comp up for the client.
A few more rounds of refinement and we were starting to get a feel for where we were going. The name was finally decided on and then we started to work out exactly what The Arrogant Butcher was going to look like. We explored a lot of options again looking for just the right fit.
We finalized the color palette and refined the overall look until The Arrogant Butcher felt like an establishment that could have been in the community for years. Honest, hard-working and approachable. This is the kind of place where genuine people enjoy spending their time. You feel welcome and want to return often. “Welcome to your new favorite restaurant.”
18 January 2012 HOW Design Blog
22 December 2011 Recent Sightings
We’ve had a few projects that have been getting some attention online recently. Along with The Arrogant Butcher and North, our ads for FOUND were chosen as one of the best print ads of the week and were seen right alongside some heavy hitters from around the world including JWT London. A big thanks to all who featured our work. Here are the links to all the postings: Graphic-Exchange, Best Ads on TV, Invigor8, Branding Magazine.
21 December 2011 Happy holidays everyone
21 November 2011 North on Design Work Life
14 November 2011 Graphic Exchange
It was great to start the week and see our mural for The Arrogant Butcher featured on Graphic Exchange. A big thanks to Fabien for including us among the great work from around the world. You can check out the actual post right here.
07 November 2011 Mark’s Ride
04 November 2011 North Mural
For the opening of the new North restaurant in Arcadia we were asked to design and paint a custom mural. We took a different approach to this mural than we did with the one we did for The Arrogant Butcher. Instead of stencils, which wouldn’t have worked for such detailed line art, we used a projector and worked through the night to paint the artwork. We documented the entire process and have a timelapse you can see here. Enjoy this first glimpse at the new North.
28 October 2011 North Menu
For the last few months we’ve worked with Fox Restaurant Concepts to re-brand their North concept in anticipation of the opening of their brand new location in Arcadia. Along with the identity we created a custom typeface using our very own typewriter that will be used on the menu and other restaurant collateral. This is a comp of what the menu will look like when completed. The final menu will be produced on newsprint, making it feel like a newspaper. Keep your eyes open for the grand opening of North next month.
28 October 2011 Arizona College Preparatory
We just wrapped up the identity work for one of the newest schools here in Arizona. Next year Arizona College Preparatory will open it’s doors to students in grades 7-12. The administration was looking for something that would be bold and a bit intimidating. We dove head first into the world of athletics and came up with an entire family of logos to be used on uniforms, apparel, the scoreboard and the basketball court. We can’t wait to see this one produced. See the full logo set here.
19 October 2011 Prisma Graphic Direct Mail
17 October 2011 Communication Arts Design Annual
Every year we look forward to seeing all the great work from around the world in the Design Annual. This year we were particularly excited to see our work in the mix. CA really showed us some love by giving us a full page. Communication Arts is the largest international trade journal of visual communications. There were more than 4,000 entries to this year’s Design Annual and less than 200 selected to be featured. A special thanks to the East Valley Children’s Theatre for allowing us to do great work. You can read more about this year’s Design Annual here.
04 October 2011 Valkyrie Logo
04 October 2011 Qualtrics 360
04 October 2011 Art of the Menu
Today we were excited to find our work for The Arrogant Butcher featured on Art of the Menu. A few months ago UnderConsideration began spotlighting menu designs from around the world in their Art of the Menu section. It is a great resource full of exceptional work. We’re honored to be included in the mix. A special thanks to UnderConsideration. You can check out The Arrogant Butcher feature here.
30 August 2011 ImageCraft custom portfolio webpage and admin tool
Every element of the web page is customizable – the page url, the splash screen, the client name, welcome message, navigation choices and the order, services, portfolio categories and the images for each category, etc. Once submitted the admin tool compiles all the info, assigns the url, and post the page to their web server.
TunnelBravo handled the concept, design, html and CSS – special thanks to Nolan Bay for programming the PHP and admin tool.
ADMIN TOOL
10 June 2011 North menu design
01 June 2011 Zinburger Recipe Contest
The Facebook app – shown here – has a lot of cool functionality. Contestants first land on a splash screen which gives an overview of the contest, and provides two ways to enter the app – clicking LIKE, or a button that doesn’t require them liking the fb page. The home page of the app allows users to see the contest rules, submit a burger recipe, or view the recipes and vote on their favorite. When a new recipe is submitted or a vote is cast, an automatic email is sent to the person thanking them and delivers a free food coupon.
To administer all the recipes and voters, a backend admin tool was developed. It allows our client to see submitted recipes which they then approve or decline, and see all of the people who have voted, as well as vote totals.
Kudos to Jeremy Fishman who programmed the Facebook app.
30 April 2011 Mitt Romney logo “fix”
Romney recently revealed his new logo, and while we can understand the idea and direction of the mark, we don’t feel the final product is as strong as it could be. Most notably the red shape that completes the left side of the “R”. Perhaps Romney either felt the viewing public wouldn’t recognize an R without the Stem, or they couldn’t figure out a way to incorporate red, white, and blue without it.
Well, we took it upon ourselves to fix it. Keeping the same direction of the mark but redefining the shapes and use of color. We think it’s better and offered it up to Romney free of charge. We haven’t heard back from his camp on this yet. But if he ends up using it and makes it to the white house we’ll be looking for presidential appointments – perhaps as design guardians.