Illegal Pete's
Illegal Pete's
Illegal Pete's is an iconic Colorado burrito joint. The original brand was designed in 1995 and was continuously added to over the years until it dissolved into chaos. That chaos is not off-brand for Pete's at all—imperfect, DIY, punk-rock. But since 1995, Illegal Pete's clientele has grown up, so the brand needed a refresh to match. The brand is still very imperfect, very DIY, and very punk-rock. It pays homage to many of the original, iconic assets. It establishes rules that help maintain a facade of no rules. But it also is a bit more refined, family-friendly and scalable across all 13 (and counting) locations.
Illegal Pete's is an iconic Colorado burrito joint. The original brand was designed in 1995 and was continuously added to over the years until it dissolved into chaos. That chaos is not off-brand for Pete's at all—imperfect, DIY, punk-rock. But since 1995, Illegal Pete's clientele has grown up, so the brand needed a refresh to match. The brand is still very imperfect, very DIY, and very punk-rock. It pays homage to many of the original, iconic assets. It establishes rules that help maintain a facade of no rules. But it also is a bit more refined, family-friendly and scalable across all 13 (and counting) locations.
Illegal Pete's is an iconic Colorado burrito joint. The original brand was designed in 1995 and was continuously added to over the years until it dissolved into chaos. That chaos is not off-brand for Pete's at all—imperfect, DIY, punk-rock. But since 1995, Illegal Pete's clientele has grown up, so the brand needed a refresh to match. The brand is still very imperfect, very DIY, and very punk-rock. It pays homage to many of the original, iconic assets. It establishes rules that help maintain a facade of no rules. But it also is a bit more refined, family-friendly and scalable across all 13 (and counting) locations.
PROJECT TYPE
PROJECT TYPE
Brand Identity
Custom Type
Collateral Design
ROLE
Graphic Designer
Art Director
CREDITS
CREDITS
Client — Illegal Pete's
Agency — Wunder Werkz
Illustrations — Everyone at Wunder Werkz
YEAR
2020
The new wordmark keeps the punk-rock attitude of the original. The letterforms are imperfect, crooked, and look handmade. The switch to all-caps gives the mark more of a heavy, block structure.
The messy but iconic flag became a bit more refined and in-line with the brand's new extensive illustration system. However, it was important that the flag still be as identifiable as the original.
The stars retained the same pattern and skew, just became more friendly by rounding out the sharp edges and softening the forms.
Pete's offers a wide variety of programming, so it was important that the color palette remain diverse. After an extensive color study, the new palette was built with both warm and cool tones that pair together in a variety of prescribed ways to ensure a large range of use cases.
Dirty Pete is a custom typeface designed to mimic classic punk rock posters and egregious print errors. The two weights are encouraged to be mixed together, overprinted and tracked in and out half-hazardly. The face is primarily used as display type with a handful of prescribed lockups for each location, program and a handful of food and drink offerings.
