Behind the Screens: Po’ Boi

Every great job starts with a solid brief.

The aim? To blend southern charm with modern edge. Something clean, yet mean. The brand combines the classic Po’ Boy sandwich from Louisiana with a refined drinks offering focused on mezcal dirty martinis, with the idea of launching into the festival food scene.

Research. Arguably, the most important stage of our design process. In an era obsessed with Pinterest and trending typefaces, being able to set that aside and dig into the historical and cultural roots of a brief always pays far greater and feels much more considered than a pretty colour palette or flashy font ever will.

Since the Po’ Boy (originally known as the Poor Boy) sandwich was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the 1929 streetcar workers’ strike, we knew that location would play a big part in this process.

Initial ideas came from observing the abundance of wildlife that call Louisiana home. Its most famous resident, the American alligator, was what first drew us.

The idea of having the alligator interact with the two offerings from Po’ Boi (the martini and sandwich) was what we thought would really make this ownable. This was our first sketch.

Ideas slowly developed, two-headed versions sprang from accidents and different species also local to the area found their way into this stage of the project. We tried a fair few different ideas…

We settled on the gator. However, something was missing. We lacked grit. Edge. The rough and ready Jurassic nature and pure power these animals are so well known for wasn’t quite what our version had yet…

That’s when the idea of monoprinting sprang up. A process that has been around since the 1640s. So, we got to work…