Maudie’s Tex-Mex Gets Sauced
Tex-Mex is the official cuisine of the Lone Star State, but the word “cuisine” is a bit too fancy for the down-home, no nonsense Texas version of Mexican food. Many of the ingredients found in Tex-Mex are the same as those used in Mexican cuisine, but other ingredients not typically found in Mexico are often added. Tex-Mex is characterized by its heavy use of melted cheese, meat (usually ground beef or chicken), pinto beans, spices and tortillas. Texas-style chili con carne, chili con queso, chili gravy and fajitas are all Tex-Mex inventions. You won’t find Tex-Mex in Mexico, and you won’t find better Tex-Mex than at Maudie’s restaurants in Austin, Texas.
Austin partner DJ Stout has been a long time Maudie’s regular. He started going to the original Maudie’s restaurant 25 years ago and has made it his personal mission to eat there at least once a week. What started as a little hole-in-the-wall café in a strip shopping center has now grown to six locations and has become an Austin tradition. Pentagram Austin was tapped to rebrand the newest restaurant called Maudie’s Hill Country, located on the outskirts of the city in an area called Bee Cave. Stout and his lead designer Barrett Fry developed a colorful, fun new identity for the local Tex-Mex icon based on the Texas Mexico border.
“I was inspired by two things,” Stout says. “The typography and imagery found on old street posters and the vernacular of badly designed cantina menus found in the border towns.”
Maudie’s is a sacred institution in Austin, so messing with the unintentional “non-design” of the original place was a tricky proposition. Stout, who has become known for his hand-crafted typography, worked with designer Fry to developed a free-form system of hand-painted letterforms and distressed fonts, combined with layers of cheap clip-art, to create a distinctive identity that is intentionally “non-designed” looking. “It may look random and uncared for,” says Stout. “But it takes a lot of care and effort to get that messy accidental look just right.”
The new identity, originally created just for the new Bee Cave location, was such a hit the company recently decided to roll out the look to all six of the locations in Austin. Pentagram ended up designing a multiple set of food and bar menus, table-tents, T-shirts, posters, ads, gift-cards banners, packaging, website and the main signage for the Maudie’s Hill Country restaurant. Fry has even designed large-scale custom silk-screened artworks for the dining rooms and bar area that fit into the over all look and feel of the new brand identity. “Maudie’s is a fun place,” says Stout. “The new typographic system we’ve created for the hallowed Tex-Mex temple is colorful and energetic. There’s nothing more fun than enchiladas and margaritas!”
Project Team: DJ Stout, partner-in-charge and designer; Barrett Fry, designer.