The assignment was to create a memorable giveaway at pre-opening events being hosted around Chicago by the client, Honey Butter Fried Chicken. The client wanted the giveaway to be something that a recipient would more than likely keep long after the specific event had passed and perhaps even after the restaurant opened.

Having designed the broader Honey Butter brand around hand printing and the wood type aesthetic in general I wanted to use this opportunity to focus the brand further. Wood type printing has deep roots in the Midwest and establishing deep roots in the local and regional community is hugely important to Honey Butter. To visually communicate this I designed the poster around the building of the Honey Butter logo within a stylized Chicago skyline. The skyline itself is built from blocky letterpress inspired shapes to spell out “Chicago”. Also sprinkled throughout the design are key references to Chicago cultural touchstones such as Picasso's Bull, the giant Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier and the bean-shaped "Cloud Gate". These elements are meant to create a symbolic link to Honey Butter’s desire to become a cultural touchstone within the city. The whole scene is placed within a horizontal big sky, big country Midwestern context to further emphasize Honey Butter's commitment to draw from and contribute to the regional artisan and agricultural community.

The poster was so well received that the original 400 print run was gone within two months. Honey Butter has been open for 7 months and many customers have asked staff if the poster was still available or if they had received one at an event, mentioned having it framed and hung on their wall.

The poster graphic quickly became such an iconic image for Honey Butter that we had it hand painted as a large wall mural within the restaurant.

Photos of the mural in context can be seen at the link below:
http://www.kitemath.com/submissions/hbfc-poster