Gabbiano’s

Red sauce reimagined.

Completed 2021

︎ Brand Strategy
︎ Identity Design
︎ Collateral & Signage
︎ Interiors


Collaborators:
Colby Brooks ︎︎︎ mural

1. Discovery
The Gabbiano’s team came to us with a concept inspired by nostalgic Italian-American restaurants of the the 1930s and 40s. The menu consisted of classic Italian-American fare, prepared with a modern-day sensibility. The location they landed in had great bones but was in need of some warmth and voice.

2. Framework
The concept—“Red Sauce, Reimagined”— pulls from the classic restaurants of yore and the care-free joy that exists in those spaces. It’s the comfort of an old-school family restaurant, expressed through a contemporary lens, with a touch of loud rowdiness as a nod to their name, which translates to “seagull.”

3. Design
We developed a custom logotype that references vintage menus, and set it into a brand with a lively color and type story to bring it into current-day. Idiosyncratic illustrations add a boisterous vibe. For the interiors, we added warmth to the existing modernist framework with scalloped edges on the banquettes, bent cane chairs, and lots of trinkets and decor. And of course, no Italian restaurant is complete without a landscape mural.


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