Project Snippet - Crack't Breakfast Sandwiches Visual Identity Exploration

During my time at Nextbite, I had the opportunity to develop visual identities for a slew of their virtual kitchen brands. Crack’t is one such brand, and like it’s sister brand Hatch House, focused on the delivery of breakfast sandwiches. While Hatfch House took a more classic approach to their offering, Crack’t was decidedly more experimental and whimsical, offering items like a chicken and waffles sandwich.

This visual identity exploration for Crack’t feeds off that playful energy, turning a retro script typeface into eggs and bacon. A cracked egg is used as the apostrophe, and an illustration system inspired by the logo is used across merch and packaging. The whole thing is tied together with a sunny and funky color palette.

Project Snippet - Unused Brand Direction for The Cerulean

The name The Cerulean probably looks familiar. I recently posted another Project Snippet for the same brand, showcasing some of the merchandise I designed for the concept. This is an early exploration of that same brand, one that was a bit more refined and Southern in it’s execution, reflective of the higher-income patrons of the Bay St. Louis area.

Typography inspired by classic boat name handlettering makes up the monogram and the primary logotype. A monoline script is paired with this typography to feel classic and personable. I also chose a relaxed Great Blue Heron as the brand mascot. Native to the area, you normally see these regal birds standing tall over the water or flying with their legs outstretched behind them. Instead, I’ve chosen to show the bird breezily floating along on the water. This bird is mean to represent a more refined local patron taking it easy at The Cerulean.

This small snippet of a visual identity represents the nostalgia of a bay-front seafood restaurant packaged in a contemporary way.

Project Snippet - Character Pieces for The Cerulean

Sometimes it’s the little things that you remember most, or it’s the tiny takeaways you keep as a souvenir of your experience, allowing you to look back fondly on a certain time in your life. When designing character pieces, the thought is to always create something that speaks to that brand and reminds the patron of their fond interaction with it, but to also be subtley branded in a way where the patron isn’t transformed into a walking billboard. I am vehemently against logo-slapping for this reason; no one wants to be used as free advertising, and unless they really love a brand, they won’t wear a logo loud and proud across their chest.

Character pieces have to also make sense for the brand. Yes, in the world of free swag and branded merch, t-shirts and pins are the norm. But just because they are the norm doesn’t mean they’re right for each and every brand. Take the character pieces below for The Cerulean, for example. The Cerulean (while still not open at the time of writing) is a laidback, casual seafood restaurant based out of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Bay St. Louis is a touristy waterfront town, but The Cerulean, while wanting to also appeal to tourists, is meant to be a respite for the bay-loving locals.

When coming up with ideas for character pieces, I had to put myself in the shoes of a local; thinking about what kind of items they would actually want to take home and use, and how branded these items should be. Being the more practical sort, I imagined the patron would want items they could actually use; fishing hats and shirts to protect their skin while out on the bay, and koozies to keep their beverage of choice frosty while out in the hot sun.

Project Snippet - Chasin' Tails

Back in the day there were some real interesting clients that came through the doors at Vigor. One such client was Happy Endings Hospitality (HEH for short… you may giggle now). They own a few different restaurants, each of them with a suggestive name. Chasin’ Tails is one such restaurant, their Cajun concept, and the OG concept paved the way for the rest of HEH’s brands.

So you may be asking yourself, looking at the logo and supporting marks above… why poker chips? Why have you abstracted a crawfish into a spade? Well, dear reader, it’s because without poker chips Happy Endings Hospitality wouldn’t exist. The founder likes to take risks and have fun, as is obvious by the risque names of the restaurants they own, and initially started HEH with money he had one from time spent in Vegas. So, to pay homage to that story and set Chasin’ Tails apart from other seafood restaurants, I focused on a clean-lined look that would layer easily with gratuitous photos of low-country boils and stand-out among the nautical ship-lap-covered competition.

This little identity system didn’t end up being the final, but I felt there was merit in it and couldn’t let it gather dust on my harddrive.

Project Snippet — VH Beer Can Designs

A few months ago, I featured an early exploration of what a marketing campaign could look like for a client of Vigor’s, VH Beer. Before we got to that scope of work, however, we had gone through the process of naming, branding, and designing packaging for the brewery. The directions featured below are were early, unused explorations of what can designs for VH Beer could look like.

To see where the final branding and packaging landed, be sure to check out the case study on Vigor’s website.

As this brewery was a new one on the scene in Denver, CO, this direction puts their logo front and center. I also hoped to create differentiation from a lot of the other over-designed colorful craft beer cans on the shelves by using a limited color palette and creating a literal white space for customers to rest their eyes from the rest of the visual noise.

This direction aimed to depict the literal scenarios a consumer could find themselves in while enjoying VH Beer. Shoutout to Chia-Yu Hsu for helping me out with the illustrations!

VH Beer is run by the same owners of Viewhouse, a local chain of restaurants / bars. Viewhouse’s name carries a bit of weight in Denver, and so I wanted to make the connection between VH Beer and Viewhouse more apparent by focusing on a shared mascot; the Viewhouse eagle. The eagle is anthropomorphized and illustrated in various scenarios, in which they would find themselves enjoying VH Beer. Thanks again to Chia-Yu Hsu for lending his talent in bringing my idea to life.