What happens when you put six slightly overqualified designers, twenty black permanent markers, one borrowed projector, and three litres of lukewarm beer into a restaurant after hours? If Thread’s involved, you get a six-square-meter mural of a suspiciously regal cow, hand-drawn directly onto the wall of a Shanghai steakhouse. Not painted. Not printed. Drawn. With markers. By hand. Like lunatics.
This wasn’t just a spontaneous doodle session. We handled the full restaurant branding for Fat Cow on Hongmei Lu — from the logo design to the restaurant interior concept, from the brand identity to the cow’s very questionable expression. It’s all deliberate. And it all started with a single cow.
Not just any cow either. Ours was inspired by the engraved illustrations found on old American banknotes — that classic, hyper-detailed style originally created through an insane process called intaglio printing. Back in the day, engravers carved directly into metal plates by hand (think microscopic chisels and serious wrist pain). It’s how currency used to get that ultra-fine detail and texture. Lovely to look at. Absolutely ridiculous to replicate.
We had big ambitions. We tried stencilling. Too many lines. We tried tracing. Impossible to get the detail. In the end, we drew over 800 individual lines — slowly, carefully, and slightly tipsy — to get the same etched effect. Yes, 800 lines by hand. The projector helped, but the wrist cramps were very real.
Why go to that much trouble? Because in hospitality branding, the smallest details are often the ones people remember. Our clients wanted something memorable, something people would talk about before they even opened the menu. That’s where Thread thrives — between branding, interiors, and the occasional mad idea that turns into the centrepiece of your restaurant’s story.
So if you’re after a slick restaurant logo, a fully custom interior concept, or a bold, slightly obsessive team to take your restaurant branding somewhere you didn’t expect, you know where to find us. We’re probably still scrubbing marker ink off our fingers.
Scroll down to see the result. Or better yet, head to Fat Cow and check out our fancy bovine in the flesh.
