Ricardo and Gustavo are the creative heads behind 400º Pizza. Like two wise Jedi, they had been meditating and pondering for some time on whether a brand transformation was the right strategy for their business growth plan.
“Free the pizza!” - cry out the colourful characters that make up the brand universe of 400° Pizza. Lurking out and about around the corners of Madrid - this crew of witty, ironic, and rebellious folks spew their antics left to right. They are lawless. They are joyful. They are the masters of controlled chaos, in healthy measures, and have a sticky tooth for authentic pizzas in…questionable measures.
400° Pizza approached us with a full creative license to overhaul their existing brand identity. Sitting on top of their requirements was the need to knead the brand’s personality thoroughly. A request which we didn’t take lightly. And so, we tightened our designer aprons, flared up our creative furnaces, and cranked up the heat to 400° degrees Celsius: the temperature at which the crunchiest pizzas are conceived!
Ricardo and Gustavo are the creative heads behind 400º Pizza. Like two wise Jedi, they had been meditating and pondering for some time on whether a brand transformation was the right strategy for their business growth plan. When they knocked on our door, they told us they were looking for something fresh, human, and handcrafted. A simple logo change didn't quite connect with their clear intergalactic-lightsaber-wielding-warrior vision. They pictured a complete world change—bigger, bolder, theirs.We accepted the challenge; we embarked on the risky mission of taking a brand that already had great recognition, breaking it down completely, and then moving it from functional . . . to extraordinary. A task we took on with the precision of a Bavarian watchmaker.
Fear evolution, you must not.
People change, brands too.
From the beginning, we stumbled upon a fairly modern and youthful image, capable of speaking for itself and transmitting emotions.
It was a composition of 3 pieces: Logo (customized generic typography); an isotype in the form of a pizza slice; and a "fresh & fast" tagline, all in lowercase. Some construction problems existed, but it was overall a striking and memorable composition for which our mission already suggested great challenges.
Ricardo and Gustavo communicated to us their intention of continuing with a homologous design language but correcting where we considered necessary, removing the pizza iconography, and creating a new tagline.
As we progressed, different options arose. Giving us a little more creative freedom to explore graphic styles that we hadn't previously contemplated, the team at 400º Pizza suggested moving away from the main shots. We immediately pulled out the plates, brushes, and inks to create a personalized lettering, betting on something more artisanal and handcrafted—like their pizzas, made with the hands for people who eat with their hands.
As we well know, a brand does not begin or end with a logo or the perfect name; its success results from many other factors—among them, having a graphic ecosystem capable of adapting to any environment, whether physical or digital. It makes the brand more visible and unique, a jungle of elements and visual resources that are lush and fertile enough to grow into the most striking identity.
