THE CHALLENGE

For Ciao Belli I was tasked to build a casual dining concept with a strong connection to Italian cuisine, but tailored to cater to the Dutch market over multiple locations, starting from Breda. The new concept needs to be positioned as a lifestyle brand to capitalize on communication to attract a loyal customer base, and have a distinctive identity that can be replicated over different locations.

BRAND MANIFESTO

Inspired by the Italian serendipitous sense of hospitality, Ciao Belli is a concept where the table is always set and the fire is always on. Ciao Belli's kitchen is a second home, a place where you don’t ring the bell, you don’t need an invite to come in, and you get called by name.

Ciao Belli promises its guests a genuine moment of happiness through an unpretentious, irreverent and enticing dining experience, where guests are invited at the table to eat, drink, talk and play together. You might enter the restaurant alone, but you will leave full of friends.

VISUAL INSPIRATION

In order to deliver an authentic and genuine Italian feel, we started investigating Italian design history as a whole, and the wide impact that it had on international culture. Bringing together our ambition to combine simplicity, tradition and true Italian spirit with a certain level of exploration and modernity, we found inspiration from the style of Futurism (early 1900) and the way it  impacted modern art and commercial design of the following years (1930’s).

Futurism, originated by Filippo Marinetti, rejected the past and set out to celebrate a number of abstract concepts like speed, machinery, youth, energy... Combining movement, typography and symbolism as form of decoration, and simple shapes as representation of the whole (learning from cubism), this is a route that perfectly encompasses the simple, energetic yet genuine Italian proposition of the brand.

BRAND DEVELOPMENT

To position the brand as a lifestyle brand, it is necessary to expand its range from more than just restaurant-related products. For this reason, we felt the need to venture in other fields such as merchandise, music, and social media presence. First and foremost we developed a simple line of white T-shirts embroidered with small symbols inspired by Italian cuisine, in our brand style. These t-shirts should be showcased in high-exposure areas of the restaurant (i.e. the bar or the entrance), and packed in branded glass jars, emulating the idea of a jar of sauce.

An additional way to promote the brand was defined by creating unique Italian playlists on Spotify, and periodically releasing them on our social media and in Vynil physical copies as a way to accompany the convivial moments of the guests daily life (i.e. Aperitivo at the park...).