Mexicali Rose: A Vintage Western Meets California Display Font
The Story Behind Mexicali Rose
Mexicali Rose started with a restaurant I grew up going to in Montclair, New Jersey. It was this funky, eclectic Tex Mex spot that I absolutely loved as a kid. The food was great, but honestly, a huge part of what stuck with me was the place itself. The interior was colorful, weird, a little over the top, and completely its own thing. You could tell the owner had a ton of character and had created a place that wasn’t trying to look like anywhere else.
For whatever reason, places like that have always stuck with me.
I grew up on the East Coast, but some of my favorite memories growing up were trips out West. I spent time in Colorado visiting my aunt and uncle, and about once a year we’d head to California to visit my grandpa. Somewhere along the way I became obsessed with the visual world of the American West, especially the old stuff.
Vintage California ephemera, faded highway signs, old gas station T-shirts, embroidered patches, diner mugs, hand-painted storefronts, matchbooks, beer labels, motel signs. All the little things that weren’t necessarily designed to be precious, but ended up having so much personality.
That was really the starting point for Mexicali Rose.
MEXICALI ROSE DISPLAY FONT IN USE
Western Meets California
When I started drawing Mexicali Rose, I didn’t want to make just another traditional Western font. I wanted something that had the grit and character of old Western lettering, but also some of the style and flair I associate with vintage California.
The idea was to create a font that could feel completely at home on a Western brand, a ranch tee or an old beer label, but could just as easily work for a coastal brand, surf shop, restaurant or something pulled from an old California postcard.
It’s bold and a little rugged, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are funky details and imperfect shapes throughout that give it personality without pushing it too far in one direction.
That versatility became a big part of Mexicali Rose. Depending on how you use it, it can feel cowboy, desert, coastal, surf, roadside or just straight-up vintage. It’s a display font with a lot of character, but enough flexibility to make it your own.
MEXICALI ROSE FONT IN USE MOCK UP TEQUILLA BRAND
Inspired by Vintage American Ephemera
I wanted to create a western display font that felt like it could have existed somewhere in that world.
Something you might find painted on the side of an old roadside building, printed across the back of a beat-up gas station tee, or sitting on a matchbook you found in the glovebox of your grandpa’s car.
I wasn’t interested in making a super polished cowboy font. I wanted it to have some grit and imperfection to it. The letters are bold, chunky and a little funky, with big western-inspired serifs and small irregularities that give them a more handmade feeling.
There’s definitely some old Texas and cowboy influence in there, but there’s also California, the desert, roadside America and all of those little pieces of vintage design I’ve collected and obsessed over for years.
And the name felt obvious.
A little nod to that weird restaurant in Montclair that I loved as a kid and probably had more of an influence on me as a designer than I realized at the time.
A Versatile Display Font for Branding & Merch
I designed Mexicali Rose to be the kind of font I’d actually want to use in my own design work.
It’s made for the big stuff.
Logos, restaurant branding, beer and drink labels, coffee packaging, posters, signage, hats, T-shirts, album artwork, outdoor brands and anything else that could use a little western character.
It works especially well when it’s big, where all of those slightly imperfect details and chunky serifs can really show.
My goal wasn’t to recreate one specific piece of vintage lettering. It was more about capturing a feeling. That mix of cowboy culture, old California, roadside signage, desert towns and the slightly strange handmade design you find when you’re digging through old American ephemera.
Mexicali Rose is my version of all of that rolled into one typeface.
And maybe a little bit of that restaurant in Montclair too. Shop Mexicali Rose”