B&T Pizza
Project Vision
The founder of Bridge & Tunnel Pizza is a former New Yorker who aspires to create a franchise out of his New York style pizza-by-the-slice restaurant. He asked Kuhlmann Leavitt to develop a brand identity and design the interior of his flagship restaurant in St. Louis.
Finding inspiration in materials typical to New York City public transportation, Kuhlmann Leavitt created a cohesive marketing strategy including identity, business cards, pizza boxes, delivery car graphics, interior graphics and finishes, and exterior signage including a lit blade sign and vinyl window graphics.
Inside the restaurant, concrete flooring is stained in two alternating shades of gray angled striping that mimics the orange and white hazard stripes seen on roadways. A wall in the seating area continues the stripe pattern, but boldly, in two shades of orange. The bold contrast of the wall to the rest of the space is broken up by a series of parking lot mirrors mounted to the wall.
Other nods to New York transportation include a run of LED lights mounted to the wall (recalling NYC traffic lights) and modernized subway tile used below the ordering counter. Lighting and other finishes were chosen to create a contemporary, urban setting that still holds the essence of a New York slice shop. At night, the BT logo rendered on a large vinyl banner is spot lit for visibility in the busy streetscape.
Project Details
This modest but intelligent project began with the understanding that the branding of the delivery car should drive the logic of the graphic program. The simplicity of the mark is appropriate and evokes the straight-ahead logos of government transportation agencies. The logo themes are extended inside the store through other elements, including a grid of off-the-shelf back-up-so-that-you-don’t-hit-anything mirrors. Well done.
Design Team
Deanna Kuhlmann-Leavitt (design director); Monica Goldsbury, Krista Hoppe, Tom Twellman (designers)
Design Firm
Kuhlmann Leavitt
Consultants
Architextures (construction drawings), Paric Corp. (general contractor)
Fabricators
Nordquist (exterior signs), Lithographix (interior vinyl logo banner), The Designery (menu graphics), Vinyl Images and Design (vehicle graphics), Ward Jacobs (lighting)