My first sketch was deemed too scary by the client. I was reminded that this was a family restaurant that would be serving children and that hoped to add revenue through merchandising. Could I make the Devil look more like Coop’s famous rendition; sneaky, but not so sinister?
My inspiration came from of all things “The Joker” in the Batman comics. If you add horns and pointy ears to the Joker, you end up with the Devil.
As you can see, my vectorized rendition stayed very true to the sketch I had submitted earlier for approval. As an afterthought, I called the art director on the project, Gary McIntyre, who also happened to be one of the owners and asked if I could add a gold tooth to the Devil’s smile. He was with his partners in the restaurant at the time and they approved the addition. Next, came the design of the exterior sign.
I love vintage crate labels and found this image online of a citrus label featuring southwestern art. It served as a model for both the lettering and the colors used on the sign.
