El Vecino — East Dallas’ Friendly New Neighbor

At Banowetz + Company, we have bit of a soft spot for East Dallas, as many on our team call it home. East Dallas is a combination of friendly people, a beautiful lake and a close-knit community you can’t find anywhere else in the city. What has been lacking in the area, however, is incredible restaurants. This is where our most recent project comes in. 

El Vecino, meaning “The Neighbor,” is the friendly culinary creation of Kim and John McBride. John is the great-grandson of the creator of El Fenix, Mike Martinez, who introduced Tex Mex to Dallas back in 1918. John was also very active in the NYC restaurant scene for many years and most recently, back in Dallas, has been the managing partner at The Lot, where he fell in love with the people of East Dallas. Wanting to embed themselves further into the community, he and his wife set out to open a neighborhood Mexican restaurant that would serve as a hub for East Dallas residents to relax with each other and enjoy great food and great drinks. And with that goal in mind, B+C collaborated with them on the branding for their new venture.

We designed a look and feel inspired by Old Mexico meets modern neighborhood kitchen. Utilizing a combination of brightly-colored floral oil-cloth patterns and distressed black and white graphics, we created a logo, stationery, website, menu, signage, and all sorts of other collateral for the restaurant. We also developed messaging that emphasized the welcoming hospitality of a good neighbor. As we expected, this new East Dallas resident is a big hit, and we’re excited to spend a few happy hours with them, sipping margaritas and downing delicious “True Tex Mex" dishes. Check out our work below, and make sure you check out El Vecino the next time you are in East Dallas, USA.

— Team Banowetz

Ink Soy Sauce: New Work Makes a Big Splash

If you’re a foodie, you’ll especially appreciate our latest creative endeavor at B+C, where we helped name, brand and package a new line of gourmet soy sauces. After some enlightening taste tests and initial meetings with the creators of these tasty concoctions, we put down our chopsticks and got to work. The client chose “Ink Soy Sauce” as the product name, and after establishing the logo, we created messaging and graphics as bold as the sauce itself, for use on the packaging, stationery and website. Lastly, a promotional kit was needed for presenting the new product line to retailers. The combination of bamboo and metal gave the finished cases an impressive and unique culinary feel. We’re excited to say that Ink Soy Sauce has already made its debut on the shelves in grocery stores throughout Los Angeles, and the line was recently rolled out at Walmart. Make sure to grab yourself a bottle, or two at inksoysauce.com, because Ink is shaking things up from coast to coast.

— Team Banowetz

Modern Market: Eat well, Be Happy.

We recently partnered with a new client, Modern Market, to create a billboard for their new Plano location. We used an immediate call-to-action: “Good for you. Fast food. Right here.” Modern Market serves amazing, healthy food using simple, whole ingredients that are sourced from farms, not factories. They prep their food every day, because when it comes to healthy eating, they don’t believe in shortcuts. Check them out for breakfast, lunch or dinner. 

Modern Market has 27 locations throughout the country, so we hope this is the beginning of a healthy relationship!

— Team Banowetz