I started working with breakfast restaurant, Big Bear Biscuits, in October of 2021. At the time, the restaurant was still in early planning stages (it wouldn’t hold its grand opening until June 2022) and besides a rough logo, the developers had virtually no branding elements.
I met with Creator and Chef Dean Sample to hear his story and learn more about the values he wanted to instill in this restaurant. Growing up in rural Indiana, Dean developed an early love for cooking and comfort food by making food with his grandma Bonnie. Many of the dishes served at Big Bear are recipes that were passed on to Dean from Bonnie that he added his own culinary twists to. Dean wanted to instill the same feelings at this restaurant that he experienced as a kid when his family and rural neighbors would gather around a plate of fresh biscuits after a long day of fieldwork.
I used Dean’s southern-fried history and creative culinary instincts to inform a visual style that early in the process I informally referred to as “Groovy Grandma”. I wanted the identity to feel personal to Dean by using traditional rural visual elements like classic gingham patterns and food photography that looked rustic and authentic. I also wanted the brand to stand out by incorporating bright colors and surprising graphic elements that reflected the unique dishes dreamt up in the Big Bear kitchen.
After finishing presenting this concept to Dean and his team, his wife burst into tears and said “Its just so amazing to see that someone gets what we’re doing.” That was definitely one of the most rewarding moments in my design career and let me know that I was taking this brand in the right direction.