Logo and illustration for Mahal BBQ
Mahal BBQ is the brainchild of James Beard nominee Jerome Grant, whose mother influenced his cooking with Filipino flavors from home. Based in Washington DC, Chef Jerome launched Mahal BBQ to bring American-style bbq with Filipino flavors to more people.
I was tasked to make a logo and illustration for Mahal BBQ, using the brand’s primary colors yellow and gray.
Logo
For the logo, Jerome and his wife Sophia asked if barbecue smoke could be highlighted in some way. After some discussion over email, and a few days for studies and iteration, a final logo was chosen.
The logo was mainly inspired by smoke artwork from different comics I’ve come across over the years, even Filipino komiks. The grill itself was rendered from sketches of different types of barbecue grills I’ve seen in the Philippines and the US, and even grills in front of jeepneys here in Manila.
Jeepney illustration
After the logo, we proceeded with their next request for a jeepney illustration highlighting a barbecue grill in some way.
One of the requests from Jerome was the portrayal of a jeepney, and food cooking on a BBQ grill.
While I was browsing through Jerome’s Instagram for ideas, I saw a photo of his family and decided to add passengers who were based on his loved ones in the post.
After sketching, I emphasized the line work in pen so I could see the artwork while digitizing it with vector lines in Adobe Illustrator. After coloring and some additional clean up here and there, the illustration was complete.
I was happy to know that Jerome and Sophia were pleased with the work, and that they liked how their family was portrayed in the illustration. Soon after it was approved, they posted the illustration with a nice dedication to how important their family was:
“Mahal is the legacy that I want to leave for my family, in the city that I am proud to call my home. It is fun and casual, but made with lots of love and time.”
-Chef Jerome Grant, Mahal BBQ
If you’re in Washington DC, do check out their food and enjoy their love of barbecue! Follow them on Instagram below:
https://www.instagram.com/mahalbbq/