Levetto
Branding rustic fast food in a competitive industry.
Branding
Visual Identity
Print Design
Web Design & Dev
For Customers
For Franchisees
Space
68 Sudbury
382 Spadina
Brand
Levetto is a fast-casual food concept, serving fresh scratch made pasta and romana pizza with 8 locations in southern Ontario. The menu focuses on simple but hearty, filling Italian fare.
Working extensively on all aspects of design with management at Levetto, we settled on a simple and versatile identity that could be accessible to a wide audience. Torontonians have a plethora of amazing food options and it was important to communicate and set the expectation of what they would experience at a hybrid fast-casual restaurant like ours.
We found that a customer’s experience upon leaving the concept restaurant was heavily influenced by their expectation before walking in. The ones that expected a typical fast-food thought that the wait times too long and prices too high. Others that expected a trattoria or bistro thought that the service was non-existent and we were missing many of the hallmarks of a full service restaurant such as table cloths, candles and a host or hostess. We eventually found a good balance by combining different aspects of fast food and full service to make the experience as seamless as possible.
The bright red arrow helped us communicate the brand in small and abstract applications like interior feature walls, cutting boards, wall tiles and on social media. Playful illustrations, bright photography & clear, simple print layouts round out the print & web application of the identity. We also used graphic design to help organize the operations of the restaurants themselves, such as stickers that labelled best-before dates, serving portions and other food-safe information.
Web
Due to our small team, we knew maintaining an extensive and content rich web strategy would be difficult, so we kept our public-facing website simple and to the point. Users could easily access menu options, complete with pricing and full-screen photography in two clicks or less. I implemented a mobile first design that kept the code clean and easy to maintain for a small team - taking advantage of Bootstrap 3 to complete the bulk of the front end code in 3 weeks.
Surprisingly, our franchisee-facing backend turned out to be an incredibly helpful portal for new restaurateurs that needed to get up to speed on recipes, best operating practises and general company wide announcements regarding day-to-day supplier shortages, menu changes, etc.
Spaces
The design of the spaces had to take into account a tight budget, aesthetics & also functionality (stacking chairs & stools, easily cleanable surfaces). We developed and created our own custom concrete wall tile to tie in branded arrow shape and ingrain it into the interior design without coming an overbearing advertisement. I was personally involved in the design and construction of furniture pieces in four of eight stores.
68 Sudbury Street
The first downtown location of Levetto introduced more contemporary, minimalist textures and finishes. Built on a shoe string budget, we made use of economical finishes and custom furnishes to create a cozy, comfortable atmosphere.
382 Spadina Ave.
Levetto Chinatown features a medley of natural materials at their best. The usage of warm Ontario White Oak solid woods accentuate and compliment a cool grey and navy blue palette while taking advantage of material texture for customer comfort.