Oh'Brian's on the Green: Menu Boards

Oh'Brian's on the Green is a great bar and restaurant located on the HyattHills Golf Complex (but open to the public) in Clark, New Jersey.  It has the relaxed atmosphere of your friendly local sports bar with a buttoned-up twist of country club polish.  The space is beautiful, with great outdoor seating, and - better yet - large chalkboard walls in the bar and dining areas which list the (many) beers they have on tap, featured cocktails, etc.

I was so excited that they asked me to come give their chalkboards some TLC - because the space is so beautiful and the chalk walls are a major focal point.  Giving them the same polish as the rest of the place would really help to tie the look together.

I told you it was a long list of beers.

We decided that because their beer list changes so often, I would create some cool, more permanent section headers and they would just fill in the draughts below. I wanted the titles to draw inspiration from vintage beer and whiskey labels (seemed appropriate).  Bold block text and delicate graphic flourishes would do the trick.  Because the walls are so large and the details are so small, I sketched out both a large, general spread as well as smaller, more detailed thumbnails for each of the walls.

Then came the production.  It spanned two days, in the early morning before business hours (it was still dark when I came in to do the larger of the two boards!) I'm so happy with the way it turned out. The handdrawn letters say "we don't take ourselves TOO seriously," but the design gives it the polish it deserves.  And now the walls can be a focal point that do the beautiful venue justice!

Before

After

Before

After

Real Chalk vs. Chalk Marker

Chalk/Chalk Marker

As the chalk craft market continues to grow, I'm starting to notice more and more chalkboard and chalk products popping up in stores.  One such thing is chalk markers - an opaque wet erase marker intended to be used on dark chalkboards for more permanent or exposed projects. On the whole, I find myself partial to regular old Crayola chalk - it's inexpensive, easy to find, sharpens well, and offers great coverage.  However, there is certainly a time and place for each.

The first benefit for chalk, and the major one for me, is the texture created on a high quality chalkboard, such as a traditional slate or chalkboard-painted sheetrock wall. 

THE TEXTURE!!

Not only are the lines beautiful, but a good board keeps a lot of the buffed out, erased chalk, which I also like the look of.  I think that combination of things is the reason people decide to go for the chalkboard look in the first place.

That being said, chalk is sensitive.  The obvious benefit of going with chalk marker is that you don't have to be quite so delicate with your finished product once it's all done.  So there are instances in which this is a better option.  For instance, in the Acclivity Product Development board that I did a few months ago, I used regular chalk for the lettered heading at the top, but a chalk marker for the calendar skeleton at the bottom.  That way, the team could fill in their dates and information, and easily erase it without disturbing the frame.

From a production standpoint, I find that chalk marker is a lot less forgiving.  Any imperfections or shakiness in your line are obvious, where as with chalk they are easily fixable or look handmade-in-the-good-way.  When I do have to use a chalk marker for a project, I draw my design out in chalk first, then go over the final lines again with chalk marker (read: twice the work).

Process/Final

In the above before and after shot, you can see what I mean about sketching out the design, and also observe another benefit of chalk marker: the ink is more opaque and offers better legibility.  This is sort of the corollary to the chalk texture thing I wrote about earlier.  If a painted board has been used and erased multiple times, the chalk finish can begin to wear off.  This creates BAD texture for real chalk, in the form of skipping lines and poor readability.

However, in the first photo I posted at the top of this post, you'll see the same board with the same quote written on it.  The board on the left is written in chalk and the board on the right is written with a chalk marker.  The chalk marker board is slightly bolder, and also makes use of some color, which also shows up better with a more opaque ink. That said, I still prefer the notsalgic look of more muted, vintage-looking, regular, old chalk.