We’ve been working to brand a new restaurant called FT33 that will be in the Design District in Dallas. After completing the logo we worked on some custom gift certificates. We made all of the elements for each certificate right here in our studio including the custom tape. More to come soon on this project. Read about the restaurant and Chef Matt McCallister here.

We’ve had the privilege of working with Hope Arising for quite a while now. Recently they decided that they wanted to freshen up their identity. Here is a glimpse at both the old (left side) and new logo. Keep your eyes open for more work to come soon.

On March 1st we held our 2nd annual student Portfolio Night for Arizona. This year we were at The Design North building at ASU where we had a tremendous turnout. Along with dozens of students from ASU we had participants from NAU, The Art Institute, Collins College, Scottsdale Community College, Glendale Community College and even a few brave high school students.  We were again fortunate to have professional reviewers from 16 local advertising and design shops on hand to dish out advice and critiques. Much thanks to all those who generously donated their time including ASU, Prisma Graphic and the AIGA who made the event possible. We’re looking forward to next year and making Portfolio Night even better. You can see more pictures of the evenings events here.

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.”