dirty murphy's
An Irish bar with attitude, given a brand with the patina to match, and a fascia in aged brass to prove it.
new bar, old soul.
Newcastle city centre does not need another Irish bar. It needed this one to feel like it had been there for eighty years by opening night. The brief was a brand that arrived pre-weathered: confident, a bit rough round the edges, and impossible to mistake for a chain.
The trap with instant heritage is pastiche. Shamrocks, Celtic knots and distressed textures would have made it a themed bar rather than a local. We went looking for something with more truth in it.
let the material do the talking.
The concept came from the fabrication floor, not the sketchbook. Aged brass develops its own patina, unevenly, honestly, over years. So instead of designing fake age into the artwork, we designed a system that would earn its character in real material: a stripped-back letterform with weight and warmth, set in brass that starts rich and only gets better.
The identity holds back everywhere else so the fascia can lead. One typeface, two colours, and a voice that sounds like the landlord, not the marketing team.
"The kind of finish that brings character from day one and instantly belongs on the busy streets of Newcastle."
small palette, big character.
then we walked it downstairs.
The approved concept went straight to our sister companies. OneLaser profiled the brass letterforms, OneSign built and installed the fascia. Nothing was lost in handover, because there was no handover.