04 / 10
Coffee in the morning, beer at night
The Mad Ox is a neighbourhood bar that wants to be more than a bar – somewhere locals and first-timers both feel at home and stay longer than they meant to. With a name like that, the brand was never going to be quiet.
The wordmark is set in loose capitals with a slight tilt, as if it’s already had one. Next to it there’s a TMO monogram on a waving flag, which also hangs outside on the lightbox.
Then the icons, each a small joke about the place: two glasses with their stems tangled together, a coffee cup marked AM and a beer bottle marked PM, a hanging sign, and a peace-sign hand ringed by ‘Good vibes only’.
The same pieces run through the print – coasters and menus – and carry on into the interior graphics and wall art, so the brand is there wherever you’re standing: at the bar, at a table or outside under the canopy.
Outside, fascia signs and the hanging lightbox put the wordmark and the flag on the street.
It all adds up to a bar that looks like it’s having a good time, which is the point. Navy and white, a handful of characterful icons and a name nobody forgets. None of it is precious: the icons work as well on a coaster as on a wall, and the wordmark still reads from across the road at dusk. I designed and built the bar’s website too, so it looked as good online as it does on the street.