Boy Brands Bars

• Graphic Design

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

If you've spent any time in major Midwestern metropolises in the past year or so, there's a good chance you've encountered the work of Boy Burns Barn. The NYC-based design studio has worked with a number of restaurants, bars, and hotel in the flyover states to develop logos, identities, packaging, and overall branding schemes. 

Three Sixty, a bar which just opened this summer, sits atop the 26th floor of St. Louis' Hilton hotel, offering 360-degree views of the city. BoyBurnsBarn created a flowing logo out of those numbers — 3, 6, and 0 — as well as custom steel menu tents. Our favorite element is the check presenter, which, when pointed north, can be used as a guide to St. Louis' most notable landmarks.

Then there's Tap, a gastropub in Atlanta for which BBB designed the logo, menu (complete with Beer Flavor Wheel), coasters and other collateral. The silver matchstick canisters are fantastic, but it's hard to top a bright red buck. 

Venture over to Chicago, and you'll find a bevy of BBB works clustered in and around The Wit hotel. What began as an assignment to brand its three adjoining restaurants quickly became a chance to design graphics for the hotel itself. When it was all said and done, The Wit proudly displayed new in-room dining menus, door-hang menus, and a new look for its movie theater, Screen.

But what about those restaurants? Roof, as you can probably deduce, is located on top of The Wit. It finds its primary visual cue in the word "up." The R of the word Roof is an arrow, a clever solution that addresses the concept of dining and drinking on high. On the ground floor is State and Lake, a gastropub populated with warm, woodsy finishes. Its name is drawn from the well-known Chicago Loop intersection that it sits upon. Using location as inspiration, BBB created a clever typographical logo that immediately recalls the iconic corner.

Tagged with: Boy Burns Barn