Initial Q Social Bar and Smokehouse Branding & Menu Designs
Spartanburg, South Carolina is at an interesting point in its life. Growing exponentially due to the influx of millennial workers from Greenville looking for a slower pace of life to start their families, Spartanburg was experiencing a growth spurt after years of decline. The team at Leader Lanes, Inc sought to be part of that rejuvenation effort, and invested in elevating Spartanburg’s downtown strip with an inventive spin on South Carolinian BBQ. Thus, Initial Q (I.Q.) was born.
After our extensive market research on our patron, we landed at a personality for Initial Q that was rooted, refined, and inventive. These three words guided the visual identity and accompanying touchpoints, resulting in a look that of upscale Southern heritage with unexpected surprises sprinkled throughout. Designer Maria Tamayo and myself worked collaboratively to develop the visual identity, inspired by Spartanburg’s historical city planning maps found in our research. The rough drawn texture of the architectural lines on such maps was reflected in the gridwork in our designs, guided my typographic choice in the wordmark and monogram, and the line quality of Maria’s custom illustrations. The use of the grid is a focal point here, especially as used on the menu suite. In designing each menu, cover and interior pages, I developed a grid and thus broke it, adding dynamic energy to each layout in reference to the inventive personality trait.
Materiality was also an important consideration for Initial Q. In order to give a sense of history and deep story to the visual identity, materials for each of the touchpoints, and how the brand was applied to each touchpoint, was carefully considered. The visual identity is burned by fire, literally branded, into the leather coasters, masonite menu covers, and wooden picks, not unlike the branding that farm animals experience.
For this project, I assisted in developing the brand strategy (competitive research, brand definition), collaborated with Maria Tamayo on the visual identity, designed the suite of menus (drink menu cover, lunch menu, dinner menu cover and interior pages, menu cover material selection), designed additional printed touchpoints (coaster, wooden pick, sauce insert) and wrote some light branded copy for the menus.
Initial Q was done for Vigor. If you would like to see the rest of the case study, click here.
