Last Rites — Brand & Creative
Four years of ongoing design, photography, and creative production for a themed San Francisco rum bar — event systems, sales collateral, merchandise, and cocktail photography.
Overview
Last Rites’ brand identity was built by Justin Lew: a themed experience that dropped guests into a tropical jungle with the wreckage of a crashed airplane, inspired by dimestore adventure novels. My job was to put it to work. Over four years I produced all of the bar’s ongoing creative output — event marketing systems, a private events sales book, merchandise, a brand collab, and the cocktail photography that feeds the menu system.
Each piece required working within a specific visual register: pulp adventure, vintage horror, high camp. The work shown here is a selection from a larger body covering hundreds of assets across print, digital, and physical collateral.
My Roles
Creative Director, ongoing production lead, and primary creative resource for Last Rites since 2021. The foundational brand identity and logo were designed by Justin Lew. About 75% of everything since — event marketing, merchandise, menus, collateral, photography, and brand extensions — has been mine.
That covers concept and creative direction on the Adventure Menu system (each cocktail as a vintage pulp novel, 24 covers shot at the bar), all event marketing production for weekly activations and seasonal programming, the Events & Parties Book (a private dining sales document designed to feel like an artifact of the bar’s world rather than a floor plan), and the LR x False Idol co-branded shirt. Four years of production across print, digital, photography, and physical merchandise, all within a single consistent visual language.
Tools Used
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Midjourney
Artifacts
Adventure Menu — Creative Direction & Photography
The Adventure Menu turns each cocktail into a vintage pulp novel: 24 drinks, each with its own genre treatment, tagline, and “by [bartender]” author credit. The concept was mine, iterative of the bar’s initial concept of pulp novels and dime store paperback adventure novels. The cocktail photography was mine. Design execution by Justin Lew.
The Pulp Approach
Last Rites’ brand already lived in pulp adventure territory. The event marketing needed to extend that — not just match the palette, but commit to the conceit. Every recurring event became a story. The poster looked like its cover.
“Bingo Night and the Numbers of Destiny.” Each event title was written as a pulp novel title first. The illustration treated the premise seriously: a character in jeopardy, dramatic lighting, something at stake. The type matched — distressed letterforms, period-appropriate styling, the kind of lettering that belongs on a drugstore paperback rack in 1955.
Midjourney made it possible to generate illustration that actually looked like vintage paperback art rather than a graphic approximation of it. The work was in the prompting — directing the model toward a specific era, a specific tension, a specific color temperature — and then building the typography around what came out.
The goal was to make someone look twice before they realized it was a Thursday night bingo promotion.
Special Events & Weekly Activations
Recurring weekly programming each got a full design system, not just a poster. Bingo Night and Survivor Night are good examples: a poster series in two print formats, a customized prize wheel for winners to spin, and two distinct voucher card variants — one for drink prizes, one for an in-game mechanic. The same treatment extended to Trivia Night, Survivor Night, and others.
Typography and layout in Illustrator. All illustrations art-directed and generated in Midjourney.
BINGO NIGHT
SURVIVOR NIGHT
Events & Parties Book
A private events and buyouts sales document designed to feel like the bar itself. Each seating area treated as a destination, not a floor plan. Cover art, interior layout, and copy all mine.
Cocktail Photography
Last Rites photography has a specific look: dark, dramatic, directional lighting against warm wood and stone — intentionally different from the brighter product work I do for Horsefeather. Four years of ongoing beverage photography used across menus, social, and the Adventure Menu system.
LR x False Idol
Last Rites and False Idol (San Diego) co-hosted an event with Foursquare Rum Distillery. The shirt needed to represent both bars without defaulting to either one’s usual aesthetic. Heavy metal was the answer. Lettering, composition, and illustration direction all mine.
