Covell
Choose an adjective.
A typographic campaign for a Los Feliz wine bar with no written list — the bartender’s own question becomes the headline, and a glass fills with words.
Campaign direction · Hero + story design · Rollout plan
Choose an adjective.
Why this line, for this business.
The business
Bar Covell is a neighborhood wine and beer bar in Los Feliz with no written list; the bartenders ask what you’re in the mood for — “choose an adjective” — and pour from there.
The goal
Put the bar’s one unusual habit on a poster, so the thing regulars already love is the thing new neighbors hear first.
The central idea
The campaign is the bar’s own line. A glass holds words instead of wine — bright, funky, serious, cheap, weird, Tuesday — in handwritten red ink. The headline is literally what the bartender will say to you.
Words, not bottles.
No labels, no bottles, no interior. The glass-of-adjectives device says ‘no list, just talk to us’ without photographing anything.
Handwriting in wine red.
The adjectives are hand-lettered and slightly uneven, like a chalkboard. The headline is a classic serif so the joke has something formal to land on.
One stain.
A single wine-ring on the cream field. It’s the only ‘photo’ in the campaign and it’s the right one.
A glass full of whatever you said.
The glass is the template and the adjectives are the content. A weeknight post fills it with ‘Tuesday’; a natural-wine night fills it with ‘funky’; a holiday fills it with whatever the room is saying. The serif headline never changes.
Cream field, glass silhouette, hand-lettered red adjectives, serif headline, one wine-ring stain.
Which adjectives fill the glass, and a small chalk-style line for the occasion.
Landscape puts the glass beside the headline. Vertical puts the headline above a taller glass.
Two formats.
One identity.
The landscape hero and the vertical story were designed together so the campaign reads the same on a website banner and on a phone. This is the completed, deliverable artwork; everything in section 05 builds on it.
Words that match
the pictures.
Starter copy in the campaign’s voice — a headline, a supporting line, three social captions and an email subject. Written to show the tone; the business would refine every line.
Choose an adjective.
Supporting lineNo wine list. Tell us a word — bright, funky, serious, cheap — and we’ll pour toward it.
Call to actionPull up a stool
- There’s no list. There’s a question. Choose an adjective.
- Tonight’s adjectives so far: weird, grassy, Tuesday. Pull up a stool.
- Everything by the glass. Everything by conversation.
Choose an adjective — this week at Covell
Completed assets.
Proposed extensions.
The two completed pieces are the complimentary concept. The rest is how the idea could grow if the business wants to take it further — each would be scoped separately and built from approved brand assets.
Campaign hero · 3:2
The landscape design on the board above.
Vertical story · 9:16
Story version with a taller glass under the headline.
Weekly adjective post
A template where the glass refills with the week’s words — a running series.
Coaster + window vinyl
The glass device printed on coasters and as a simple window decal.
Motion cut
Words pour into the glass one at a time until it’s full; the headline settles. Six seconds.
The weekly post is the whole campaign: a glass that refills with what people actually said at the bar.
Project scope & production notes
What this study covers
Campaign idea
Visual direction
Hero + vertical story design
Sample copy and rollout plan
Created as a complimentary, self-initiated concept and shared with the business as a proposal.
What it is not
An independent concept for a real business, created without its involvement. The artwork is AI-assisted and illustrative; it does not depict Bar Covell’s interior, staff or wines.
No commission, client approval or measured results exist for this work. Motion, print and email items in the rollout are proposals only.
Jessica Alpert
Rooms that know you.