EPISODE 1: Chris Hall / Unsukay Concepts
Chris Hall of Unsukay Concepts on Creative Collaboration and Building a Restaurant Brand
In this episode of Beyond the Logo, Jaci Lund talks with Chris Hall of Unsukay Concepts about creativity, restaurant branding, collaboration and the process of turning an idea into a fully realized guest experience. Chris shares why he values working with other curious, creative people and how Treebird helped expand the vision for Seahorse through thoughtful details, storytelling and brand expression.
WHAT THIS EPISODE ANSWERS
Why did Chris Hall choose Treebird Branding?
Chris describes himself as a Treebird “convert,” “diehard” and “evangelist.” He says Treebird promises a lot and still over-delivers, while bringing curiosity, creativity, shared values and a sense of fun to the work.
What is it like working with Treebird on a restaurant brand?
Chris describes Treebird as a creative force multiplier. He says the team took his ideas further, introduced details and perspectives he had not considered, and helped turn the concept into a more complete brand experience.
What does Chris Hall value about Treebird’s creative process?
He points to curiosity, collaboration, attention to detail, shared values and the ability to give an idea both whimsy and the right amount of gravitas.
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT TREEBIRD
“I’m a convert. I’m a diehard. I’m an evangelist.”
“You guys have always over delivered on your promise.”
“You took what my idea was... and then there was... that force multiplier.”
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Announcer (00:08)
You're listening to Beyond the Logo. Jaci Lund, founder and creative director of Treebird Branding explores what it means to cultivate a brand that endures actionable branding advice rooted in an audience first philosophy and candid conversations with clients about the challenges they faced and the creative solutions that transformed their business. This is thoughtful strategic guidance for visionary business owners who understand that great branding isn't launched. It's cultivated. If you're ready to invest in branding that creates lasting impact, you're in the right place. Welcome to Beyond the Logo.
Jaci Lund (00:47)
So this is Chris Hall, my friend, wild man, owner and partner in Unsukay Concepts. One of the founding members, is that the right way to say it, of The Giving
Chris Hall (00:57)
Kitchen? Yeah, a founder. We were actually talking about that verbiage yesterday.
Jaci Lund (01:01)
Oh, okay. Well, let's get it right. Well, thanks for being here.
Chris Hall (01:05)
Thanks for having me.
Jaci Lund (01:05)
I'm so excited to talk to you. So we were literally just talking before about ideas and creativity, which was my first question, which is where do you get your ideas from?
Chris Hall (01:16)
I think I'm stimulated by the environment around me. So one of the interesting things for me is I didn't grow up going, "Hey, I want to be a chef." I didn't know I was a creative person because in school I was an athlete and I love music. I go see tons of shows, but I can't carry a tune in a backpack. Everyone else in my family plays multiple instruments can sing, do that. I can't. And so I can't draw a stick figure either. So you just sort of get typecast into this. It wasn't a bad thing. It just, I didn't have an outfit. Yeah, these
Jaci Lund (01:49)
Traditional creative
Chris Hall (01:50)
Paths. We're not working out. I didn't fall into any of those tropes, I guess, or boxes. And so when I found food, I was like, "Cool." And then when I found design and restaurants and all the weird stuff in my head could come out-
Jaci Lund (02:06)
You
Chris Hall (02:06)
Can say shit. ... it became a thing. Okay, cool. So I think I'm stimulated a lot by my environment, which is how my creative process ... One, when the muse hits me, I got to stop and do it. If it's three in the morning and something comes in my head, I might get up and write for two hours. Don't try and fight it. Don't try and go back to bed. Just get stuck in and roll. And I think just creating an environment for me, whether it's being around creative people, like you guys at Treebird, whether it's I'll just go online and read menus and look at stuff and put some music on that inspires me. And sometimes the muse comes and sometimes it doesn't, but if I can kind of set the stage
Jaci Lund (02:48)
Yeah, it sounds like you're being very intentional about trying to give yourself creative triggers because it is like an energy.
Chris Hall (02:55)
Yeah. And that's the hard part. I realized after we opened Local three, I was trying to write menus and I was so overwhelmed by running the business and the stress. The muse wasn't there. I couldn't summon it and it was really frustrating. It was like my first time of whatever creative block you want to call it. I was just like, "Shit, have I lost it? Can I do this because the stress and everything?" I have to be in a receptive space and an open space and be emotionally in a good place. And the more I'm there, the more the creativity flows.
Jaci Lund (03:32)
Yeah. Okay. So an idea has come, you're feeling good, you're excited. What comes next?
Chris Hall (03:39)
I think there's got to be some analysis about the viability of said idea. And I think that's in a lot of ways where the rubber really meets the road. I mean, there are tons of people that have great ideas. It's do you have the ability to take the idea and turn it into reality? And that's the hard part. So I sort of think about it from like, is it something that's viable? And then it's, I'm weird. I'm trying to figure out how collaborative I want to be because I love collaboration. I really do, but I sort of love it on my own terms,
Chris Hall (04:13)
If that makes sense. And I love it with people that are equally as creative. I want people that are creative and I think one of the cool things is if you can find people that are also creative, they can expand your horizons. Seahorse was a good example of this. I had ideas and then we started talking and the next thing you know, the scope of my ideas have grown because I might've said, "Hey, I want a katana and this. " And you're like, "Okay." And then there was all of a sudden 70 different images of crabs on cantanas and kittens on katanas and inscriptions. And that's cool to me because I think sometimes you have your scope and if you get other people that can understand what you're going for, then there's kind of a force multiplier of like, "Hey, this is cool."
Jaci Lund (05:09)
Yeah. We give each other
Chris Hall (05:10)
Permission
Jaci Lund (05:10)
To get even weirder and
Chris Hall (05:13)
Expand
Jaci Lund (05:14)
More.
Chris Hall (05:14)
And I don't like boxes. I don't like boundaries. So think big and figure out cool stuff. And when someone tells you that's weird, there's an assessment of like, is it really weird or did you just not get it? And it's okay if you don't get it because there's stuff that I don't get. I mean, I've tried to read Infinite Jest a hundred times that I get like 80 pages in. I'm like, "I can't do it. "
Jaci Lund (05:37)
I'm done.
Chris Hall (05:38)
Right? I mean, I want to be that guy that can read David Foster Wals. I can't do it, right? And so-
Jaci Lund (05:44)
I haven't read it either.
Chris Hall (05:45)
Yeah, it's impossible. And so much of life is about the perspective that you approach it from. And when you can get outside yourself and bring other perspectives in and allow that to come in, it broadens your horizons because then your perspective just broadens and it's literally enlightening and cool.
Jaci Lund (06:04)
It's funny though that you said the thing about the box and you don't like a box because I feel like for us as branders, we need a box because otherwise it's infinite creative. The problem that we get to solve is the box. You just gave us a really good box of like, okay, the boundaries are this, but we can break this wall down if we need to metaphorically.
Chris Hall (06:27)
Yeah, I hadn't thought of it like that, but it really is true. It's like, okay, what is the scope? What's the box and where are we going to play and who's the audience? Because you have to keep that in mind. If you're putting something in front of an audience that has no receptivity toward it, it can be creative as hell, but it may not work long term, right? But at the same time, you don't want to compromise on stuff.
Jaci Lund (06:52)
And we had this conversation previously too, so I want to take it back to why Treebird? We started working together maybe about two years ago. Why us? Because I feel like it's been very magical since
Chris Hall (07:05)
That initial meeting. I'm a convert. I'm a diehard. I'm an evangelist. You guys have always over delivered on your promise and I don't think you under promise. I mean, I think that's the cool part is you promise a lot and you still over deliver. And I think that is something that it's rare. And look, bottom line too for me, I'm not trying to conquer the world. I'm not trying to buy a jet or anything like that. So as I do this, I want to have fun and I had and still have a tremendous amount of fun with you guys. I love everyone that works at Treebird and I love the attitude and I love that we share a lot of the same values about business and people and we're both small business people and we're busting ass to make it, right, but it's fun.
Chris Hall (07:59)
So last night I'm in Seahorse and there's someone from Dinex there who works for Daniel Baloud and he's a very accomplished guy and he looked at the menu and he saw the Sumo guy with the Tomahawk chop, but his first thing was like, "Oh my God, those are your initials on the loincloth." And I'm like, it's just like that attention to detail, the fun to me in everything I want to do, there's a Where's Waldo element. Branding and what you do is just about evoking emotion and past experience or the promise of future experience and like can you call up those emotions? And I think you guys brought all that out and you took what my idea was, which I think was pretty cool and pretty good. But then there was, for lack of a better word, what I said earlier, that force multiplier that all of a sudden it's like steroids for your brand.
Chris Hall (08:57)
It's like next thing you know, you're like, "Holy shit, we're onto something here. This is cool." I'm also drawn to naturally creative people, but also curious people. You guys are curious, right? You're not like, "Oh, hey, you brought stuff to me that I hadn't even thought of or experienced from a Japanese culture perspective." And I was like, now I'm not only doing cool stuff with the brand, I'm expanding horizons, which personally for me is something I like to do. I like to learn. And I do think there's a sense of fun and whimsy, but I also think there's a sense of like you gave proper gravitas to what we were trying to do and honored all the other stuff. And that's not easy.
Jaci Lund (09:44)
Yeah.
Chris Hall (09:44)
Right? And I'm particular about stuff.
Jaci Lund (09:46)
Yeah. Well, and something that I really appreciate with you is your deep understanding of brand and what it means to the kind of energetic aspect of a business. When did brand click for you? When did you realize this, how it makes you
Chris Hall (10:02)
Say? I'm not sure I totally have. I appreciate it. I feel like you do. I definitely feel like this. So I think it is brand, but I think great restaurants have an identity and they have a feeling when you walk into them and they make you feel a certain way. And I think great businesses do that too. Having an identity and then being able to convey what that stands for through a symbol or a sign or a word, that's super powerful and it's distilling a whole lot of stuff down into the tip of the spear. It's like when we started Local three, I was like, "I don't need 40 bourbon. I don't need 40 vodkas. I want to be a bourbon bar." So we're going to lean. We're not going to do a ton of scotch whiskey. We're not going to do a ton of Irish.
Chris Hall (10:50)
We're going to lean into bourbon. It's a distinctly American spirit and we're going to go deep and do it really well. And so I'm drawn to that. But the branding piece, yeah, if you don't stand for something, you stand for nothing.
Jaci Lund (11:04)
Salad. Yeah.
Chris Hall (11:06)
You
Jaci Lund (11:06)
Said it really well.
Chris Hall (11:07)
Yeah.
Jaci Lund (11:08)
Well, what's a piece of advice then that you would give to someone, whether in restaurant or a product or any other type of service business, like what piece of advice would you give people when it relates to brand? You kind of already touched on it, but ...
Chris Hall (11:23)
I think it is. I think pick an identity and then allow people do your best to convey to you guys and other people what that identity is and work on creating a brand, right? Work on creating. And it's not all ... Branding is interesting because yes, you guys play a major part in it, but it's also actions, attitude, the people- We're
Jaci Lund (11:47)
A conduit. We're just part of it. The
Chris Hall (11:49)
People you work with, right? Treebird has a brand because of the people that work at Treebird, the style that you've decided to operate in, the values that you have and it comes out. And the other thing I would just say is intentionality is critical. B intentional. It all means something to someone. So think about it. Spend time on it. My philosophy on restaurants is it's just a series of details stacked one upon another that makes a cohesive and great experience. You guys have that attention to detail and you're willing to stack all those pieces and when you get out, you have a brand and it's the music you play, it's what's on the napkin. It's not just, "Oh, there's a logo." Right? It's all the ancillary stuff. I mean, for us it's matchbooks and I mean we had such a good time doing all the images around Seahorse and they matter.
Chris Hall (12:52)
They're all very personal and they're all very intentional, but it all matters. And when you tie it all together, you weave this fabric of cool shit, hopefully. So be intentional and have an identity. You can't be everyone to everybody. Just be you and pick what you want to be and allow people like you to help tease that out of you because you can't all bring it out. I think you have to have someone to help tease it out. And I think one of the things that I've found with working with you guys, and I guess I'm going to call it subject matter experts. So whether it's a designer, I can see what I want, but Amy helps me because I don't know every shade of carpet or I don't know. I know the vibe I want, but she can go, "Ah, what about this? " And I'm like, "Well, I've never heard of duck teal bird feather green, but I like that cut." I never would thought- Amazing interior
Jaci Lund (13:52)
Designer. You should
Chris Hall (13:53)
Probably mention her.
Jaci Lund (13:53)
She's
Chris Hall (13:54)
Amazing. Amy's our designer at Starling Studio and she's great.
Jaci Lund (13:59)
She's
Chris Hall (13:59)
Awesome. But you get what I'm saying? I don't have all the expertise. You do. I have ideas and what you guys do so well is you take the ideas and you not only translate them, you expand upon them into something really cool.
Jaci Lund (14:14)
So what's next?
Chris Hall (14:16)
I don't know. I know that one of my goals for next year is to engage you guys because we have six different concepts with different brands and then we have this penumbral holding thing that we use called Unsuke Restaurants and right now I'm not sure there's a connection between this Unsuke restaurants and all the brands. And so getting you guys to help us connect the brand with this made up word for doesn't suck is something that I really want to go down that rabbit hole because I think it's important and do that.
Jaci Lund (14:57)
Well, and for that one too, I agree that doesn't connect. And for other groups that I've worked with, I've said no one ... I probably would've said no one cares. But because of the level of hospitality and you're just following that you've created with these brands, I do believe it's important that people care and they
Chris Hall (15:15)
Want
Jaci Lund (15:15)
To know.
Chris Hall (15:16)
We're lucky that we have so many guests that frequent multiple restaurants. They stay with family, right? And it's the most rewarding part of what we do, but I think people knowing that all these are tied together will help our business, right? So that's something ... What was your favorite part of Seahorse?
Jaci Lund (15:38)
Well, I'll just say my
Chris Hall (15:39)
Favorite- Can we actually talk about that in public?
Jaci Lund (15:42)
I know. First of all, are we allowed to talk about it because
Chris Hall (15:44)
It's just a
Jaci Lund (15:44)
Private club.
Chris Hall (15:45)
We are allowed to
Jaci Lund (15:46)
Talk about it. Well, the first thing that clicked for me with you is because of course I got to talk to some members of your team first and I was like, "Well, they're cool as hell." But I didn't know you yet. And then we had our first meeting and we were already engaged and then you were walking us around Warhorse and you said, "Oh, that's the dude's rug." And I said, "Oh, it really ties the room together." And then it just fell out of my mouth and then I realized this is my dude. It was
Chris Hall (16:15)
The same for me. I was like, "Okay."
Jaci Lund (16:17)
This is a guy. All of the touches and things that ... Then the intention that we saw in your other brands, I was just like, "What a cool project to work on and I didn't want to let you down." We were so impressed and inspired that when it came to this concept, you said that it's a Omakase by which Omakase is my favorite thing to do on this planet. And you said it's going to be this really high end, beautiful space, but it's inspired by Kill Bill, which is my favorite movie of all
Chris Hall (16:53)
Kinds. In the genre of the movies that I like the most.
Jaci Lund (16:55)
Yeah.
Chris Hall (16:56)
From the guy that literally just picked two barrels of bourbon and spent an hour and a half last night watching Princess Bride and pulling quotes so I could name these barrels of bourbon, right?
Jaci Lund (17:07)
Yeah.
Chris Hall (17:08)
It's all there.
Jaci Lund (17:09)
Was one of them going to be inconceivable?
Chris Hall (17:11)
So it came down, that was in there, that was in there. One is it had to be have fun storm in the castle. And I thought about inconceivable. So I generally theme them. So anytime we buy barrels from this producer, we're going to do it. So my favorite scene in the whole movie is with the Sicilian. And so I named the second one, The Battle of Wits has begun.
Jaci Lund (17:34)
Nice.
Chris Hall (17:36)
Which again, some people will get ... That's the weird part because I think that's one of the things that drew us. When you said that and the whole time, anything I talked about you got, but there are instances where people don't get it and it's really awkward. At Warhorse, which is the brother to Seahorse above the fireplace, there's a picture of the Duke brothers from trading places. It's a giant oil painting we had commissioned. What's your ideal client? I'm just curious.
Jaci Lund (18:06)
Well, it's funny when we talk- It's not me. It literally is. When we talk about our ICP or ideal client profile, I'm always like, "Well, who is Chris? Why do we like working with Chris so much?" You have a vision, you get weird, you had a very serious talk with us one time, I'm sure you remember, you got really, really serious and you were like, "I just don't see enough Godzilla in here." And I was like, "What? What a great problem we need to solve." And
Chris Hall (18:34)
Then- Yeah, let's solve the more Godzilla conversation. Yeah. And then we
Jaci Lund (18:38)
Found-
Chris Hall (18:39)
Which that is one of my favorite parts of the whole brand is Godzilla with the nightcap on. Literally I bring people to that and they're like-
Jaci Lund (18:51)
It's so stupid.
Chris Hall (18:52)
You know what's also cool and it's so funny because people, they're like, "Holy shit, that's so you. " And I think that's cool because you guys captured me and my personality and my ... And yet I wouldn't have put that idea together, right? I'd kind of reached the limits of my horizon and you guys brought that in. And I was like, "That's one of my favorite
Jaci Lund (19:15)
Parts." Yeah, Godzilla, that was one of them. But why we like you so much is because of that vision, because of your willingness to get weird, I feel like there's so much trust and you were ready. You were ready to trust us, which was a beautiful part of that process. We just got each other. But something that we really got into about something you said about yourself was like you were like, "Oh, I'm a hard ass. I'm an asshole." And that we realized a person, especially a man that refers to himself that way is actually probably a soft litle kitten on the inside and that's who you are and that's where
Chris Hall (19:54)
We're like- All bark, no bite.
Jaci Lund (19:55)
This is our ICP. It's like a guy who thinks he's a hard ass, because any man that has ever said to us, "I'm the nicest guy you're ever going to work with is the worst." And so that's part of our ICP because you're our favorite, you're our ideal person in that we were like, any man that calls himself as an asshole is probably our cup of tea.
Chris Hall (20:15)
I mean, that's the interesting thing I do have, but that's part of the creative process. If you get easily ... I try not to be offensive, but I do have ... I'm going to be honest with you guys. So many people aren't honest and you're like "That's great." That's not helpful. Pick up that image or whatever you're like, "I don't really like that as much as I like this. " And I do have a clear sense of what fits and what doesn't in my lexicon. And so you guys gave me so many options and the cool thing was so many of them fit very- We prety much kept it all. Yeah. There are very few that didn't, right? But you have to be able to have that creative dialogue of like, I'm not going to hurt your feelings, but that lyric can be better. It's clunky, right?
Chris Hall (20:59)
Whatever it is.
Jaci Lund (21:00)
You were so open to that and that if you don't have that mentality or that mindset of working together on it that we're going to solve for the greatest good of this project, then it's just not going to connect that way.
Chris Hall (21:14)
I had a great deal of trust because your track record, you guys, the personalities, everything else, I was like, "This is easy." That's the other thing is I never felt like I had to micromanage you guys. You guys hit deadlines, everything was there. It was all cool stuff. It was just a pleasure to work with you guys.
Jaci Lund (21:35)
Thanks.
Chris Hall (21:36)
I'm not slamming anybody else. You guys just went above and beyond and over delivered. So my partners are very scared that I'm going to do another restaurant just to work with you. There's been talk about that. They're like, "You just want to do cool stuff with Jason." And I'm like, "Well, maybe we'll figure something out and do something cool." Right? Yeah.
Jaci Lund (21:59)
Likewise. We had so much fun with you.
Chris Hall (22:02)
The marketing that grabs me or the brands that grab me tend to be more creative. If you send me an email that's like, "Come check out X, it's cool," versus sending an email saying, "I've got three hippos, two giraffes at this place." I'm clicking on the second one.
Jaci Lund (22:20)
And no matter what too, fonts have personalities, color has meaning, it has feelings. And so no matter what, it's just that level do we get to have a Pac-Man made out of fans eating sushi? No.
Chris Hall (22:36)
Such a cool idea.
Jaci Lund (22:37)
It was so stupid.
Chris Hall (22:38)
So good.
Jaci Lund (22:38)
That was a good
Chris Hall (22:39)
One. It was the best. But I mean, you also gave me a gold origami seahorse in the frame that sits on my desk. That's when I knew you guys got it, right? That's when I knew I was like, "Yeah, okay. I don't have to worry about this on a micro level." I'm like, "These folks understand what we're doing and I can not sweat that part."
Jaci Lund (23:04)
Yeah.
Chris Hall (23:05)
Well, that's the goal. The color thing was funny too because I tend to be pretty, I'm not going to say monochromatic, and I think you guys pushed a little there. You said
Jaci Lund (23:16)
That we literally cannot use the colors that we used.
Chris Hall (23:19)
Yeah. I needed that, but I know my weakness, right? And then I said,
Jaci Lund (23:22)
"Well, we're using them and
Chris Hall (23:23)
Here's why." But that was so cool because again, I'm the type of person, and some people won't like this, but I want to be pushed. I want my boundaries to be expanded, right? And you guys did that, but you did it in a way that wasn't like, oh shit, shocking. I wasn't like, "Oh my God."
Jaci Lund (23:43)
Yeah, how
Chris Hall (23:44)
Dare they? And you were, you were honest. You were like, "Look, here's this stuff. We all love this, but we have this crazy idea out here, what do you think? " And I tend to love that, right? I was like, "Oh, that's cool. Let's do it. "
Jaci Lund (24:00)
We just needed to move you to a place of acceptance and to let go of some past feelings
Chris Hall (24:04)
Because
Jaci Lund (24:05)
Colors have feelings.
Chris Hall (24:06)
I can be stubborn too, right? You were
Jaci Lund (24:08)
Fine. It was like a half a meeting of ...
Chris Hall (24:12)
Sometimes I need to be ... I am the world's youngest curmudgeon to my wife.
Jaci Lund (24:18)
Something else that you did though that I really loved about the process of Seahorse was that you invited us to the tabletop meeting with your entire leadership team for Seahorse where we went through the entire service step by step in every single thing that was going to be placed on the table. We had been part of semi-conversations about that with clients before, but we never went through the choreography with them and I think it just opened up so many other solves besides just the brand. It was the execution. And of course things have tweaked since, but it was about like, "This is the size of the table we've got and what can we do? " And so now we've adopted that as a signature meeting that we have with all restaurant openings or if we're doing a rebrand and we're doing the execution of we need to have a tabletop meeting and we need to go through that whole choreography.
Chris Hall (25:06)
Because it matters. Y'all are doing the menu and you're doing all the coasters and the bathroom napkins and that was Kill Bill. What's funny is again, I get asked so many times like, "What's this from?" Which I think is great because I now have a chance to engage on a different level with someone. It's a natural opening of like, "Hey, I'm going to tell you a little bit about me and what matters and my crazy brain." But then you can be like, "Oh yeah, what about- " They've got a story
Jaci Lund (25:40)
Too.
Chris Hall (25:40)
Yeah. I love Westerns too. And so it's a cohesive experience. Again, it's all the little details from the time you make a reservation to the time you walk out the door and get in your car, they're all stacking on one another. So it's the Bento box and the takeaway and the bags we use and the cool tissue paper, which frankly that can be a hard sell to people, right?That can be like, "Hey, that's costing money. Do we need tissue paper?" But
Jaci Lund (26:13)
Can
Chris Hall (26:14)
You keep in mind the total experience that you're trying to, you have to?
Jaci Lund (26:18)
Yeah. Well, and those
Chris Hall (26:19)
Are
Jaci Lund (26:19)
Things too that yes, it's a cost, but it's such a small cost and we've got so many tricks up our sleeves of like, "Hey, we're going to ask you to spend on this, but it's going to take that to such a higher level." And it's just, again, it's about intention and people feeling really cared for. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily recommend all of the crazy things that we did for y'all for a hotdog, but there's just so many opportunities to make people be surprised and delighted. And again, it's about like, "I don't care if I'm..." And it's not $10,000, but I don't care that I'm spending $10,000 because I feel like I got 15.
Chris Hall (26:56)
Yeah, 100%. And that whole idea of we are not trying to do transactional, we're trying to do experiential. And
Jaci Lund (27:05)
It's
Chris Hall (27:05)
Every
Jaci Lund (27:05)
Single sense,
Chris Hall (27:07)
It's wrapping it all in. So when you leave, you're like, "That was a cool ride in the amusement park. I want to do that again. That was unique. I haven't done that before." It is. It's a very sensory on all of them. It's touch and it's sound and it's all that matters, right? I'm surprised by the tabletop thing. But not to that
Jaci Lund (27:30)
Level.
Chris Hall (27:31)
Seahorse wouldn't be Seahorse if we didn't have that- through
Jaci Lund (27:35)
Choreography.
Chris Hall (27:36)
And I just think the Omemoria and all the little cool stuff we did- But
Jaci Lund (27:42)
That's why it was helpful to hash things out though and it was such a great collaboration with your team and how they would be interacting with these elements and what was feasible and what wasn't. It was great. It was such a good meeting. We walked away from that. We were like, "That was the best time."
Chris Hall (27:58)
That was fun. Yeah, no we saw
Jaci Lund (27:59)
That. That's a signature meeting now that we
Chris Hall (28:01)
Had to have. It's all part of a bigger picture of putting all these details together. And you guys are good at details.
Jaci Lund (28:07)
We like details.
Chris Hall (28:09)
I think you guys put a lot of care and intention, like I talked about earlier into what you do of it doesn't matter. It can be multifamily, it can be me, it can be a beverage, it can be whatever, but there's a deep sense of care and pride, frankly, and like, "Hey, I'm putting my name on that. This is important. And if it works- We do care a lot
Jaci Lund (28:32)
About our..." We want to see that success. We want to see these living entities go on. And that's why we do like working with folks like you that do care. It makes our job a whole lot easier. I think it
Chris Hall (28:44)
Comes through though, because I've worked with folks, it's not that they don't care. They're just like-
Jaci Lund (28:51)
I'm invested.
Chris Hall (28:52)
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's a job for them and they're getting paid for it and they're going to put their best effort forward. That's fine. But you can tell it's no different than a server that 36 day dry age pork chop is banging, right? What do you want? Who's going to get- Who's going to
Jaci Lund (29:11)
Sell you the pork
Chris Hall (29:11)
Chop? That energy and that, it comes through. It's not the other person doesn't like the pork chop, it's just how you convey it and that sense of ownership and all that.
Jaci Lund (29:20)
I don't think you can fake that either. No. Important question. What is your favorite color?
Chris Hall (29:27)
I bounce around where I went to prep school, it was a very important time in my life and they have a bright blue, like that color blue, but I am the most diehard arsenal fan in the world. Arsenal red is something that's there, but yeah, it bounces around. I don't know what my favorite color is. That's a good
Jaci Lund (29:50)
Question. Well, I'm internally screaming because I also don't have a favorite color because they represent feelings and there's certain things I'll be drawn to even during different parts of my day And And how I want to feel. So I like to ask that question because it's another like, "Ooh, we are once again psychically connected."
Chris Hall (30:08)
It's this hard question. I hadn't really thought about it because it's all over the place. It's the basic
Jaci Lund (30:12)
Color. You ask every little kid like, "Oh, what's your favorite color?"
Chris Hall (30:16)
I was talking to my buddy, Adam Grandaseal, who's the war on drugs. And when they come up, everybody wants them to play red eyes and then everybody wants them to play under the pressure. And how many times has he played under the pressure every year, Lastin Barry? And I think that's hard because as an artist, he's moved on. He likes the song. And I don't want to speak for Adam, but you like something you did. It's like me serving the same dishes. The same
Jaci Lund (30:43)
Dish
Chris Hall (30:44)
For 20
Jaci Lund (30:44)
Years.
Chris Hall (30:45)
I like the McDowell and I like the truffle Parmesan popcorn. I keep them on for a reason because I got to keep a roof over my head and all. I've kind of moved past that.
Jaci Lund (30:54)
Yeah. Well, and I feel like that's like you truly are a creative person because you're like, "I've done this. I've seen success. I like, I'm bored. We got to shift and try something new over here. Okay, we're going to expand on that. Okay, we're going to go back and redo this. " You're constantly invigorating your creative spirit, which I just really admire and respect.
Chris Hall (31:16)
Yeah. I have a ton of ... I just don't want to write the same album or in my case, the same menu 150 times.
Jaci Lund (31:24)
Yeah, it's not challenging.
Chris Hall (31:25)
And you will. For me, there are common threads that run through. I have a style. I'd be crazy to say I didn't, but you guys have a style. But I also think that was one of the things that drew me to you guys was the fact that you guys have multiple styles and you're malleable and you can do different things.
Jaci Lund (31:44)
Yeah. I feel like there's an essence of Treaverd, especially because there's that intention, that emotion and there's like a professionalism and sophistication no matter who we're working on, but we do not adhere to a specific style of design because first of all, it's boring. But second of all, if every single business is its own unique entity, then there is no world where I can copy and paste something to something else. Every single thing is different. Every single project we work on has a different audience, different inspiration, different goals and aspirations. So we can't just say like, "Oh, this worked for them. We're going to give it to you. " That doesn't exist in our minds.
Chris Hall (32:24)
It doesn't in yours, but it does in so many other people's ...
Jaci Lund (32:30)
To me, that's being an artist though. And that's something I learned in design school. If you want to have a specific style, you're an artist and people will buy that and they want to take that art style and say that's their brand. That's fine. I want to be a designer and so that's different. I don't have a specific style. The team doesn't have a specific style because of that aspect of it. We're not going to just say ... We feel like we wouldn't be doing our job if you were walking down the street and said, "Oh, that's a treatment." Oh, that's a treatment. What I want is for you to be like, "What the fuck you did that?
Chris Hall (33:02)
" Yeah. And that's it. That's it. But that's one of the cool things. I don't want that out of my restaurants. So I feel very confident that we do something else. It'll be very different. You're going to see what
Jaci Lund (33:13)
We did for you anywhere
Chris Hall (33:14)
Else. Right. And that's cool because I think it just a lot of them look alike, right? It's just like, oh, it worked over here so it must work over here and it must work over here.
Jaci Lund (33:24)
Well, that's why we're so careful about making sure we're not doing anything that's overly trendy because of that, that the entire community all looks like it's the same. And then there's certain feelings that are applied to that like, "Oh, I didn't have a really good experience at so- and-so and so- and-so," because maybe they're not a chef-driven concept, but they all have this similar style. Maybe not even consciously, people are just putting those on a back burner because they look the same. And also something being a trend means it's no longer going to be in trend.
Chris Hall (33:54)
At
Jaci Lund (33:54)
Some point it's going to dial. At some point it's going to look really dated. And so our mission is to like, you shouldn't have to do a full rebrand. You should expand every once in a while, but you really shouldn't have to gut something because it looks so dated like it must endure. And so that's part of all of the pieces of the puzzle that go into us not actually having an agency set style.
Chris Hall (34:17)
I'm wearing a Seahorse hat and there's no better advertisement. We call it Warhorse in the wild. A buddy of mine that plays golf for a living was getting on a plane in LA and just sent a picture of a member who had a sweater on with the Warhorse Load. That's
Jaci Lund (34:32)
Awesome.
Chris Hall (34:33)
I was like, Warhorse in the wild. And I'm like, "That's pretty cool that this guy, his brand means something, right?" It means something and it's attractive to people and they're like, "That's cool. I want that. " I
Jaci Lund (34:43)
Want to wrap the brand. Yeah. I haven't come across Seahorse in the wild yet, but I also run in different circles than your members.
Chris Hall (34:50)
We all do.
Jaci Lund (34:52)
You're the best.
Announcer (34:55)
Thanks for listening to Beyond the Logo. If today's conversation sparked something, a question, an idea, or the realization that it's time to cultivate a brand that truly reflects who you are and connects with the audience you're meant to serve, we'd love to hear from you. Visit treebirdbranding.com to get in touch with JC and the team. Your brand deserves more than a template. Let's grow something that lasts.
