DIY til’ you Die

Illegal Pete’s has a diverse and storied 25-year brand history full of beer, buddies, burritos and community building. When approaching the brand refresh, we wanted to ensure the overall feel was an honest representation of the experiences crafted over those two-plus decades of Illegal Pete’s. To that end, we endeavored to get to the core principles that tied the brand to its customers, staff and fans through comprehensive research and interviews with shareholders, past and present.  

When we got down to business, it was all about returning the imperfection of the human hand to the visual identity and giving it a structured, yet DIY feel. The primary logo mark was inspired by 1970’s and 80’s punk posters and was accompanied by a fully-custom, variable-weight font, which we aptly named Dirty Pete which takes on the characteristics of xeroxed and screen printed letter distortions in its letter variants. The color study was designed to be as diverse and inclusive as the brand itself and encompasses three different color usage systems. Finally, we created a lotteria system encompassing over 70 illustrations, each with a specific story tied to the history of Pete’s.

Burritos in Motion

We continued our work on the system by creating a digital presence that was as informative as it was fun. We used animation and parallax motion, custom cursors and insane hover states to make the experience of exploring Pete's website live up to the experience of being inside a Pete’s store.  We also created a secret Loteria machine microsite where users could explore the Loteria illustrations and learn more about Pete’s history.