Milano’s Ristorante

This was a full identity rebrand for Milano’s Ristorante, a local Italian restaurant in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Milano’s is a unique restaurant that reflects the taste and culture of Greece and Italy, well known for its award winning food, excellent service and welcoming atmosphere. Their logo, however, was quite outdated and in need of something new. My challenge was to design a new brand identity that was sophisticated, visually pleasing, and timeless, as well as update all of their brand collateral. 

Because the Italian influence is such a strong part of their brand, I wanted to make sure that I preserved as much of that as possible going into this project. I researched Italian cuisine, landscape, design style, and history – all to get a better idea of who my client was and what would help me in my design process. I also looked at their local competition (restaurants like Romeo’s, Cactus Club, et cetera) to get an idea of opposing brands.

Ultimately, I wanted to simplify Milano’s brand and make it look like an elegant, high-value restaurant. I decided that to do this I would need to start from a blank canvas, ditching their existing brand and coming up with something new entirely. Something with a limited – but bold – colour palette, simple – but dynamic – typography, and a lasting first impression. 

The deliverables for this project included the new logo, as well as a complete brand guidelines posters and booklet, which included all of the brand collateral I developed. This included staff uniforms, takeout containers, graphics for delivery trucks, et cetera. Everything was designed and created in Adobe Illustrator, save the brand collateral mockups, which were done in Adobe Photoshop. The brand guidelines posters and booklet were designed for print.