Hill Country Barbecue Market

Long-term brand development and creative direction for Hill Country Barbecue Market.

Hill Country Barbecue Market brought the traditions and communal energy of Central Texas barbecue into a distinctive hospitality experience. The brand needed to feel authentic to its roots while working as a contemporary restaurant destination with a recognizable voice of its own.

Over an extended relationship, the work shaped a cohesive expression across the restaurant experience. Bold typography, documentary-style photography, straightforward language and tactile materials connected the food, music, hospitality and sense of place without turning the brand into a Texas cliché.

Brand / Client
Hill Country Barbecue Market
Category
Hotels, Restaurants & Retail
Context
Long-term brand stewardship
Role
Brand strategy, creative direction, design direction and hands-on design
Services
Brand Development, Creative Direction, Design Direction, Campaign Development, Print Collateral, Menu Design, Signage, Digital Design, Photography Direction
Photography
Brian Klutch and Gabe Ramirez

Hill Country visual palette pairing barbecue food photography with dark wood and butcher-paper textures.

The brand system balanced Texas heritage with a direct, contemporary voice—flexible enough for a restaurant, music venue, catering business and growing family of experiences.

Hill Country wordmark with a red star and guitar emblem on black.

An ongoing program of events, collaborations and seasonal promotions kept the brand active without losing its core character.

Typography, photography and straightforward language made each communication distinct while remaining recognizably Hill Country.

Hill Country How to Order poster using bold Western-style lettering and colored banners for each step.
Hill Country poster promoting an Evan LeRoy cookbook signing, with bold yellow typography on black.
Hill Country Live Country Dance Night poster with oversized yellow and white Western-style lettering.
Hill Country Live Band Karaoke poster with bold black lettering on yellow.

The system also needed to travel. For the US Open, Hill Country became a high-volume Food Village experience spanning menus, signage and service-area graphics.

Hill Country US Open menu boards, merchandise panel and concession signage in black, yellow and white.
Hill Country projecting sign among the concessions in the crowded US Open Food Village.
Customers gathered beneath Hill Country Barbecue Market signage at the US Open concession.
Hill Country US Open concession with a projecting logo sign, overhead fascia and menu board.

The system extended across brand development, campaigns, menus, signage, collateral, digital materials and ongoing guest-facing communications.

The result was a flexible brand language capable of supporting daily restaurant needs, special events and new initiatives while remaining unmistakably Hill Country.

Hill Country pulled-pork sandwich with pickles held above a tennis court at the US Open.

Documentary-style photography kept the brand close to the food, the people and the communal energy of the restaurant experience.

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HILL COUNTRY HOMESTYLE NAMING + PACKAGING