ROLE : Special event menu and merch design, logo redesign
Locanda Vini e Olii is a Tuscan restaurant located in a landmarked building in Clinton Hill, in what was once a historic Brooklyn pharmacy dating back to the 1920's.
Featuring glass display cases full of 20's era pharmacy ephemera like medicine bottles and antique drug ads, the original rolling ladder used by the pharmacists, and the classic centuries-old hex tile flooring, history and authenticity are important to the aesthetic of this restaurant.
VALENTINE'S DAY MENU
For Valentine's Day 2024, I brought the antique feel of the restaurant into the menu, but brought it even further back in time.
Using an illustration from a book of love poems from 1683, this menu cover highlighted the love theme while seamlessly incorporating the restaurant and event name. This cover was featured on their social media and email blasts to promote their Prix Fixe dinner for the evening.
This rabbit woodcut from the 1700's not only fit the Valentine's Day theme, but a braised rabbit pasta was featured on their menu that night as well.
With this menu design, I aligned the restaurant's commitment to culinary and aesthetic history with their visual marketing and customer experience.
As the building is landmarked and the antique signage out front cannot be changed, many people in their neighborhood know it as "the Italian place in the old pharmacy". For merchandise for the restaurant, I highlighted this historic pharmacy history. Using photos of the exterior, I made a vector of the pharmacy logo and added the restaurant name and address, as though it had been carelessly stamped on an old receipt.
This concept was used on sweatshirts and t-shirts, in multiple color ways.
For a fun shift from their previous marketing, in 2024 the restaurant wanted to make some merch that was more unexpected and not related to their historic aesthetic. "Do something weird" was the prompt, which I delivered with this 90's metal-band inspired pasta graphic which we put on bags and t-shirts.
Embroidered hats with names of different types of pasta were also part of this seasons merch launch.