casino el camino, austin's infamous sixth street bar, asked me in april of 2009 to create a large menu to put in a box outside and a double-sided, a-framed sidewalk sign (aka sandwich board). all the owner wanted was for me to utilize a classic pin-up girl. i designed a semi-punk rock look that matched casino's regular clientele while still promoting the bar and grill as having famous, award-winning burgers. the final design is a little grungy and reminded me of stuff i used to do with glue and scizzors twenty years ago. what fun! the sandwich board was different. casino wanted the sign to resemble a blue note records album cover. i knew blue note was legendary as a record company and that some of their designs have become iconic and copied by musicians as diverse as portishead and chuck d. it was easy to find a foundational element, the broken bars, which have been used many times by blue note, and take it from there. instead of putting jazz musicians in the bars, i put a cheeseburger and flames and used two different fonts, which blue note often did. while one font is more elaborate than blue note would have incorporated, i liked it, so i used it. i wanted a font that people would stop to read, and this was it. then in october of 2009, casino asked me to create a poster for his 15-year anniversary party. i designed something sexy and devilish, drawing upon a style reminiscent of german and russian propaganda posters. hooray for doing what you're told! contact me at and i will create high-quality signs, posters, websites, and menus for your bar or restaurant.