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Carriqui

Brand Identity

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Services

Signage & Wayfinding
Brand Merchandise & Apparel
Logos, Iconography & Illustration
Copywriting
Brand Messaging
Branding
Brand Management
Strategy
Identity System
Naming

Team

Creative Direction: Christian Helms, Alex Roka
Design Team: Emily Prestridge, Emily Lamontagne, Ivan Alvarado
Production Team: Crystal Glover, Kayla Dockery
Strategy & Copywriting: Christian Helms, Laura Jankovsky
Brand Management: Laura Jankovsky, Ryan Kitchens
Architecture: Don B McDonald Architects
Photography: Jody Horton for Texas Monthly, Zach St. Ward for San Antonio Magazine, Adrian Lopez

Awards

Austin Ad Fed Bronze ADDY Award 2023

The Story

A brilliant green, yellow and blue jay of the tropics, the Carriqui is a noisy, colorful delight. As rugged and resourceful as they are handsome, Carriqui travel in conspicuous family flocks through the brushlands, rivers, and forests of Mexico.

Until recently the lower Rio Grande Valley was the only place in the United States where this exotic beauty could be found. Today, they nest near San Antonio—225 miles north of the Rio Grande. In the U.S., the species has never been recorded outside of South Texas. And we get it. Once you call the Land of 1,100 Springs home, you don’t tend to wander.

Carriqui’s homeplace is a lovingly restored 1890s bar with 130 years of hospitality history. In the early days of Pearl Brewery, Boehler’s Liberty Saloon served as a watering hole and social center for the brewery’s workers. Soaked with years of stories, handshakes, and slaps on the back, it saw the neighborhood through times both flush and lean. In 1933 when prohibition ended, folks lined the streets and cheered as a delivery truck rolled out of Pearl Brewery to make its first beer delivery to the neighborhood oasis.

From 1985 until 2008 the building was home to San Antonio’s heralded Liberty Bar. Over the years the structure shifted and dramatically leaned to its right, the floorboards rippling, paint peeling, and porch sagging lazily against the strain. Pearl acquired the ramshackle building in 2014, moving it a number of blocks to the entryway of Pearl, and began a tedious labor of love to revitalize an iconic piece of San Antonio’s cultural history.

We worked with Pearl leadership, architect Don B. McDonald, Culinary Director Page Pressley, and a host of local artisans, makers, and craftspeople to build a rich and immersive brand experience.

Crafting guest touchpoints both grand and tiny with equal care, we designed a vast array of brand moments: from cut-and-sew custom uniforms and bespoke ceramics to architectural signage, richly illustrated menus, branded cocktail glassware, matchbooks, and signature check trays set in classic South Texan novels.

Carriqui is a snapshot of South Texas. An exotic juxtaposition of ideas, flavors, rituals, and culture that could only harmonize here, in San Antonio. Wild and welcoming, vital and beautiful, just like its namesake. Rugged, yet refined. A trusted favorite that always satisfies. A place that feels like home. And one hell of a fun time.

Helms Workshop®