0161. Manny on the map.
Lemon Pepper Holdings got in touch asking for a custom illustration for Wingstop Manchester. Not a logo on a shirt. A drawing of the city the store had just opened in.
Merch people actually wear.
Manny’s got flavour.
Most branded merchandise is a logo moved onto a garment. It gets given away, worn once, and does nothing for the brand because it was never about the person wearing it.
A store opening in Manchester is a chance to do the opposite. Draw the city, not the brand, and the shirt stops being advertising and starts being something a Mancunian would put on because it is about where they are from.
Every landmark drawn by hand.
Loud on the back. Quiet on the front.
A brand that belongs to the place.
National chains have a hard time feeling local, because the thing that makes them efficient is that every store is the same. An illustration is one of the few ways to break that cheaply: it costs a drawing, and it buys a store the right to say it is from here.
Hand-drawn also does something a template cannot. It reads as effort, and effort reads as respect for the city.
