The food brought people back. But the visual identity didn’t communicate the quality of what was actually happening inside the restaurant. For the thousands of visitors making dining decisions from a phone screen before they ever reached Jackson, it never got the chance to.
Bubba’s Breakfast & BBQ
FORTY YEARS REFRESHED
Tourists decide where to eat before they arrive, and a restaurant’s brand is usually the only first impression that matters. After 40 years as a Jackson Hole staple, Bubba’s had the reputation but not the visual identity to match it.
A modernized brand system for one of Jackson Hole’s longest-running restaurants.
BRAND MEETS REPUTATION
After four decades as one of Jackson Hole’s most recognized restaurants, Bubba’s identity hadn’t evolved with the business. The gap between how locals experienced Bubba’s and how new visitors perceived it online was quietly costing credibility with every search, every scroll, every dining decision made from a phone screen before anyone set foot in town.
BUILT TO EVOLVE, NOT ERASE
Forty years of loyalty. Zero years of brand growth.
Heritage restaurants face a tension newer concepts don’t. The rebrand had to close the gap between reputation and perception without touching what made Bubba’s feel like Bubba’s.
SAME HAT. NEW SYSTEM.
The cowboy stayed. Everything else was rebuilt.
Stakeholder interviews confirmed the hat was untouchable. The strategy distilled it into a cleaner, more versatile mark built to work at every scale, from building signage to the rim of a dinner plate.
One system replaced 40 years of gut decisions.
A custom typography system, earth-tone palette, and internal messaging framework gave Bubba’s a documented brand language for the first time in its history. Every future decision now has a reference point instead of a guess.
The food became the brand, not a prop inside it.
Photography direction went close-in, warm, and editorial. Saturated color, natural light, real texture. Images that feel like Bubba’s smells, not like a generic restaurant listing.
Every surface now tells the same story.
Staff uniforms, merchandise, and custom dinnerware were designed as part of the system. The plate reinforces the logo. The apron reinforces the palette. Nothing is decorative.
