Application Spotlight: Good Eats in San Diego

Customer: Brian Malarkey and James Brennan, owners of Searsucker and Burlap

Production Shop: Freeform Graphics

Props: DapperCadaver

Metal Structure Fabrication: Make Fabrication

Ad Agency: Bex Brands

Location: San Diego, CA

Flight Date: 2011-2014

Project: Create attention grabbing window graphics for established restaurant Searsucker, and soon-to-open restaurant Burlap

Ad agency Bex Brands recently helped restauranturs Brian Malarkey and James Brennan create a new window displays and graphics for their two restaurants, Searsucker and Burlap. Searsucker, established in 2010, was one of San Diego's most anticipated restaurant openings from television's celebrity chef Brian Malarkey, host of TLC's Mega Bites and past Bravo Top Chef finalist, and James Brennan, majority partner of Stingaree nightclub and initial developer of many of San Diego's hottest nightclubs and lounges. Located in the Gaslamp Quarter, Searsucker serves New American Classic cuisine, emphasizing approachable and unpretentious dishes paired with local craft beer, handcrafted cocktails and a selection of one-of-a-kind wines. According to Becky Nelson, partner at Bex Brands, Searsucker's window display—the same one theyr had used their grand opening—was in need of repair and a new look. "They needed a more permanent display that would give viewers an idea of the attitude—or lack thereof—inside Searsucker," said Nelson.

The most difficult part of the job was getting the right images. Malarkey and Brennan were looking for graphics that would help to illustrate their fun-loving and jokester attitudes. "The people of Searsucker are jokesters. A lot of their materials poke fun at themselves and everything around them. This was inspired by old photos taken in Tijuana of people on donkeys," said Nelson. "Finding the proper stock images was our biggest challenge. We found one with the background, one with the donkey, one with a guy on a horse, and had a headshot taken of Brian Malarkey—the head chef—to compose the shot."

Working with Freeform Graphics, a San Diego-based print shop provider, Bex Brands spent three months working with Malarkey, Brennan, and Freeform to develop the concept for Searsucker's window graphics. According to Nelson, Freeform was instrumental in the project. "They helped us choose the materials to enhance the antique flavor of the concept," said Nelson. Using an HP inkjet printer, Freeform printed the images on artist canvas and then sewed pole pockets on the top and bottom of the graphics to they could be displayed in the window using dowels.

For the new restaurant, Burlap, however, Malarkey and Brennan wanted a different flair—something along the lines of "Asian Cowboy"—a steak-and-seafood house with flavors from Asia. Bex was looking to create a "big splash with a little mystery" for the new restaurant, since it had not opened yet. "Inspiration came from the Asian meat markets that hang Peking ducks in the window. The restaurant describes itself as Asian cowboy, and has a large, red rotisserie in the middle, so there is also a direct correlation between the window and restaurant space," said Nelson.

The most difficult part of the project was finding authentic looking meat props. "We looked everywhere, from taxidermists to Halloween specialists," said Nelson. They were finally able to come up with a source for the meat props—DapperCadaver in Sun Valley, CA. After Bex Brands was able to secure the props, they worked with Make Fabriacation (based in San Diego) to build the metal structure and Freeform Graphics for the wall vinyls and various cling film graphics. The graphics were printed with a Roland inkjet printer on adhesive vinyl with a matte lamination.

The window displays and graphics will be on display for the next three years.