Slo' Bones Identity
Remember when I talked about the importance of a meaningful brand sentence? It was for this project & I'm finally sharing the full identity with you today! Slo' Bones BBQ Smokehaus is a barbecue restaurant in Frankenmuth, MI. They've got a little thing for the blues & a lot of talent in the kitchen. Seriously, I had a dream about their brisket and mac & cheese last night. The restaurant is really unique because they have a passion for both mouthwatering food & hearty music. It starts with Big Jim, the owner of Slo' Bones, who I worked with to put visuals to his vision.
Logo Suite
I did a suite of logos for Slo' Bones so we could show the brand consistently on a myriad of materials. For example, their outdoor sign in front of the restaurant needed to say something different than their Facebook profile photo did. A distinct & rustic typeface set the tone of the atmosphere we were after, best described by the brand sentence; New Orleans French Quarters hosts a down-home meal to the tune of soul-lickin' blues rifts. When you're at the restaurant sitting at a round barrel table, being served the best 'cue in the region, you feel all warm & bluesy. I wanted the logo to reflect that.
Menu & Gift Cards
We focused on a dinner menu, lunch menu & gift cards to start. The menus needed to be flexible enough to change out meals throughout the year & organized enough to easily read meal options. I used subtle dividers with bold headlines to keep it airy & to-the-point.
Staff Work shirts
Jim wanted his crew to don black work shirts with the logo on the pocket & the team mascot, "Pork Chop", on the back. I loved the idea because they fit perfectly with the moody lighting, industrial feel & brass touches throughout the space. Details like this really make dinner at Slo' Bones an experience.
Website
The final touch was the Slo' Bones website with the current menu, upcoming events & a shop. It's also the place people make reservations & schedule parties for the holidays, work events, etc. I used a Squarespace template & then customized colors, photography & fonts. See it live.
I recently went to Slo' Bones to watch Larry McCray's acoustic show & get some brisket with mac & cheese (the meal I was telling you about!). I was overwhelmed with happiness when Larry played Soulshine, a song that means a lot to me for many reasons.
One reason is that I grew up listening to my parents & their bandmates sing this song at outdoor concerts & late into the night in our basement. At first, they weren't very good. My brother and I can say that. We were the ones trying to sleep at night when they practiced. But then they got really, really good.
The 5 of them taught me what it means to dream, what it means to keep showing up for that dream & what it means to have a damn good time with a few strings & a drum beat. Watching Larry sing "Soul shine, it's better than sunshine, better than moonshine, damn sure better than the rain", well, it melted me. I'm so honored to have been a part of Big Jim's vision & see his dream of Slo' Bones come to life. Keep following your dreams. Make them a reality. Let your soul shine, Em
Looking to launch a dream of your own? Let's chat.
Cover photo: Blues artist, Larry McCray. Photo courtesy of Gui Benck
