Lab

A rewarding project: rock & roll and barbecue

A rewarding project: rock & roll and barbecue

Lukács Péter Art Director 11/03/2020

Art Director

Rub & Roll brand identity design

It all started with the owners’ story and the atmosphere of the place. Plenty of enamel signs on the walls, all brought from the USA. Embossed, cool, patinated and complete with awesome typography. Most of them are from gas stations or bars. The only thing that’s missing from them is a ‘Welcome to Twin Peaks’ sign. I was so captivated by this stage. I also found out soon that Americans had a different attitude towards this than us. It was clear that the only way I could achieve the goal and meet the clients’ requirements if I drew something bold, brave and out-of-the-ordinary to the European eye and that I had to build it on letters.

Now what did the owners want? They wanted to see something that educates, delivers the fun facts that also help us understand the genre and, of course, something that’s totally American. Oh yeah, and ‘engaging’, too. You can even take a look inside the smoker in the kitchen to see what’s cooking. That happened to us, too, by the way. We saw the meats that were cooking for 10+ hours, we learned about the role of the rub, the marbling of the meat. All these elements are crucial and rely on each other to work. As the brisket was circling at a low temperature, the role of heat, time and the flavors did look quite important.

Heat, USA, typo. This was my starting point, and as I looked closely at the smokers, I saw two brand logos, Ole Hickory an Southern Pride, which made me think of Orange tube amplifiers and the psychedelic CD covers with the circling motifs. This is where the two things connected, our concept with the name and the method of cooking meat. The meeting point of the heat and the American attitude. These two logos were exactly what I was looking for.

American to the core. That arc, the chrome, as if it were the coat-of-arms of a Cadillac. This is what gave me the idea for the direction we were going with. This is where the Cooper Black font came into the picture. It’s interesting that there are a thousand titles with this font on the boulevard, yet none of them gives you this feeling, which it actually could. They’re all basic, distorted and uncharacteristic. No one thought to use the font in a way that’s worthy of its rank and history.

In the first phase of the work, we designed the visual identity, the portal decoration, the menu and the list of drinks. We paired this up with a cool content suggestion for social media and a trendy appearance. In order to breathe life into the identity and really make it work, we needed a number of elements, such as the seals. During the location check, we also looked into the freezer room. This was the first time I’d seen USDA-grade beef, which had prominent seals on its packaging signifying that it was premium meat. This is the reason the visual identity utilizes seals so much as it reinforces the sense of quality, and these succinct and informative elements help a lot with education, too.

The second phase of the work will comprise of interior decoration, which is still being designed. This will let the design appear on more surfaces, in a more balanced environment. As for the work we’ve done: this project will surely become one of the sexiest reference materials on the Progressive website.

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