Project
Oliver’s Pizza
Roles
Art direction
Concept development
Identity design
Menu design
“Our family needs to pick a direction”
With the sudden passing of the family patriarch, Oliver, the Russo family was left without a clear direction for their Sicilian pizzeria.
One brother wanted to leverage the relationships his family built with local suppliers to offer an elevated experience, nesting their family recipe in the heart of a refined menu.
The older brother envisioned something entirely different, sensing that the neighborhood deserved a true pizza joint, saturated with nostalgia, neon, and marinara.
Two directions were built and presented to help the larger Russo family envision their next steps.
Two Directions Were Created
The first concept utilized a lively but refined wordmark to signal a shift to the more sophisticated tone in the restaurant.
For the second concept hand-drawn lettering was used to almost melt the type, seemingly drenching the wordmark in Italy.
Seeing two drastically opposing sets of visuals allowed the brothers to fully articulate to each other what they had in mind.
What became clear was that while gone, Oliver was still very much in the room. His expectations for his sons manifested in an intense pressure to preserve his legacy and succeed.
But as they used the concepts and applications to walk through their ideas, it was evident to the whole family that Oliver would be overjoyed to see their unique passions come alive.
This allowed the conversation to change from differences to identify common ground. That evolution in conversation also made space for them to finally look back and grieve.
