After the successful restaurant branding of 1542 Gastropub, the owners tapped Vigor once again, but this time they didn’t want upscale. They wanted to create a Tacos & Tequila bar concept in Baltimore, Maryland’s thriving Federal Hill neighborhood. So, we loaded up the six shooter, put on our mustaches and sombrero, and started lighting up this new restaurant and bar brand.
Challenge
Our core challenge was to design something that didn’t bludgeon the market with cliche, but instead lean on stereotypical Mexican themes in a new way. We wanted to showcase the tequila in a more upscale way, but maintain an approachable street style food angle.
Solutions
We took the Banditos angle and worked it into a melding of modern art meets cliche. With imagery of old movies used as a base, we created a high contrast duotone treatment that gave it some color. We mixed this artful treatment with illustrated icons of common bandito imagery: mustache, bullets, six shooters, bottles of booze, skulls, coffins, etc.
Results
The logo’s elements are easily broken into a dynamic set of icons that can be interchanged to make the restaurant’s identity fluid. The identity quickly caused demand for apparel, shirts and other accessories boosting and extra form of revenue. The restaurant opened in early July 2012 and we continue to work with the team to build and market this new restaurant brand.
