Billy Twang Mercantile
Brand Identity, Marketing Collateral, Packaging, Social Media Campaign, Website Design
Fig. 1 Billy Twang himself
Masterin’ the manipulation of wood, hot coals, and flames is a duty-bound skill. — Billy
In Brief
With rubs, pits, and finely crafted tools Billy Twang Mercantile is for lovers of grilling fire cookin’ everywhere. Part wanted poster, TV gunslinger, and county fair cowboy, Billy Twang Mercantile needed a brand to capture it’s western charm but still appeal to a premium audience.
Scope of work
- Logo and Visual Identity System
- Packaging
- Product Design
- E-commerce Website
- Marketing Materials
- Social Media Campaign
Brand
The founder of Billy Twang Mercantile takes grilling and his western roots seriously, but not too seriously. In initial meetings we were presented with a document containing witticisms, musings, and quips from a fictitious, larger than life cowboy imagined to have looks somewhere between Woody from Toy Story and the State Fair of Texas’ Big Tex. On the other hand, the new to market products were seriously designed, USA manufactured, of exceptional quality, and priced for a premium marketplace. We needed to design a brand that would capture the Billy Twang character’s playful theatricality while not diminishing the value of the products.
Fig. 2 Billy Twang Mercantile Logo
We looked to fire’s orange and charcoal’s black for the color palette. The logo mark’s typography was created from vintage wood type specimens and paired with a simple, winking illustration of the brand’s rakish namesake. We drew inspiration from old west wanted posters and the rich tones of old leather and wood.
Fig. 3 Old No. 3 Rub retail bottles
Rollout
We provided assistance with Billy Twang’s products at every stage of the process. We designed labelling systems for bottled products, bags for charcoal, advised on tool finishes and shape, and vetted vendors to produce them. Some highlights are the Strikin’ Coin and the etched and laser cut medallions that appear on every Grand Prize Pit, both of which mated design with unusual production methods. Billy Twang’s product line encompassed an astonishing variety of production and packaging methods including self assembled components, private label production, and fully custom or fabricated solutions.
In addition to art direction of photography and copy editing, we designed and developed Billy a mobile responsive, e-commerce website built on Shopify and a comprehensive social media campaign. Based on an editorial calendar, Billy Twang Mercantile pushed a selection of posts centered around lifestyle quotes, special occasions, products, and fire cookin’.
Results
Billy Twang Mercantile has experienced continued commercial success with fans of fire cookin’ everywhere. Billy’s products are stocked and sold by a variety of retailers and as of April 2017 the brand was acquired by the Jacob Bromwell Company, the United States’ oldest housewares company.
