Pastaria by Atomicdust

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CLIENT

A fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed Ital­ian restau­rant in St. Louis, MO, owned by three-time James Beard nom­i­nee Ger­ard Craft. Pas­taria has an acces­si­ble but uncon­ven­tion­al menu that appeals to kids, adults, and culi­nary enthu­si­asts alike. 

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BRIEF

Cre­ate a com­plete visu­al iden­ti­ty for Pas­taria, includ­ing the logo. Ger­ard’s pas­sion and dynam­ic under­stand­ing of St. Louis’s chang­ing culi­nary land­scape meant that Pas­tari­a’s shape was still evolv­ing, mak­ing the project an inter­est­ing chal­lenge. Part­way through our work, Eater mag­a­zine named Pas­taria one of the most antic­i­pat­ed restau­rants of 2012 in the coun­try. So the pres­sure was on to cre­ate some­thing bold and mem­o­rable that lived up to that excitement.

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APPROACH

The logo need­ed to be a lit­tle play­ful, a lit­tle hand­craft­ed, but polished—just like Pas­taria. The logo’s red dot was inspired, sim­ply, by pas­ta sauce. Its slight­ly irreg­u­lar shape calls back to its ori­gins as a splat­ter (rather than a cir­cle). The pas­ta-like type­face was hand-drawn by one of our design­ers. It’s a logo that imme­di­ate­ly com­mu­ni­cates the warmth and open­ness of Pas­tari­a’s atmosphere.

At Pastaria, we serve serious food—fresh, handmade pastas and dishes made with locally sourced ingredients—but we didn’t want that to be intimidating. We wanted everyone to feel welcome—families, kids, young couples. The Pastaria logo that Atomicdust created sets the tone before guests even set foot inside the restaurant. It’s both modern and nostalgic, handcrafted but polished. — Gerard Craft, Chef Owner of Pastaria