“Mucca Design is an award-winning branding firm that creates brand experiences through smart strategic thinking and uncommon creative solutions.”
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Balthazar
“With great attention paid to period details, we developed an identity that communicates McNally’s obsession with authenticity and quality. From the façade awnings and signage, to the menus and matchboxes, we worked on every part of the Balthazar brand to give it the feel of a place that had evolved over time to become the institution that it is now. A key strategy in creating the Balthazar restaurant brand was to develop tools and materials that would allow it to grow beyond the walls of the brasserie itself. So when the client decided to open a separate bakery, we were able to create equally well-defined identity that would stand on its own while building on the success of the parent brand. For immediate recognition, the Balthazar Bakery logo is a play on the original, and is set over a signature Provence-yellow background. With respect to the old-world traditions of artisanal baking, the same reverence and devotion to detail extend throughout the Bakery materials. The brand was expanded once again when McNally opened the wholesale division, distributed other restaurants and gourmet food retailers. We ensured that the wholesale brand conveyed Balthazar’s commitment to quality and authenticity, and that it serve to elevate the experience of customers in each venue.
Widely recognized as an institutional landmark, Balthazar has also become a singularly successful and multifaceted luxury brand. We broadened its international recognition by developing the Bakery’s iconic packaging, which as been spotted everywhere from Des Moines to Lyon. And the best-selling Balthazar Cookbook is a loving tribute that allows readers a true taste of the Balthazar experience.”
Butterfield Market
“Our core strategy was to capitalize on the store’s two main assets: its long history as a neighborhood institution and its close relationships with a loyal clientele. Because its devotion to personal service gives Butterfield an advantage over competing supermarket chains, we focused on expressing the store’s unique personality throughout its communications platform. We developed a visual language that embraced the client’s history and embodied its eclectic nature, including a distinctive typographic system, an iconic monogram, and engraved illustrations. Details like the abbreviation of the street name to the colloquial “Lex” reaffirm its New York character, while extensive window graphics tempt passersby to enter.
Butterfield’s rebrand has given them valuable exposure and allowed them to expand their business to new ventures, including a popular catering service, a new gourmet kitchen, a presence in Grand Central’s food court, as well as serving from several Manhattan food carts.”
Country Restaurant
“In a restaurant, where you have a captive audience, it’s unnecessary to display the name of the venue everywhere, so we took the opportunity to create a dynamic system where the logo changes on each application. We used multiple letterforms, overlapping the “C” of Country to create 30-something distinct logos, so it can be visibly displayed without ever feeling overused. Using interesting printing details such as die-cutting, overprinting, and metallic inks gave the logo a rich, tactile feel that adds to the experience of the cuisine.
The visual language we created was expansive and flexible enough to be adapted for the restaurant’s more formal upstairs dining room and champagne bar, as well as catering services in the attached hotel. And we learned an important lesson in the process: if you propose to change the logo for every”
“We conducted an in-depth analysis of the neighborhood and its demographic trends, based on the area’s recent surge in development. From this groundwork, we developed a name suggesting an intimate neighborhood market that evokes the borough’s rich heritage: Brooklyn Fare. We designed the interior to give it a warm but modern feel, maximizing the limited space and taking advantage of large corner windows with a stylish cafe. A key focus of our branding strategy was to give the store a unique voice, which we expressed in a literal manner with irreverent text that conveys a smart New York humor. And because the brand is based on copy meant to engage the customer, we created a playful proprietary typeface, Fare Serif, to echo the same tone.
The entire retail experience speaks to consumers in a language that makes the daily grocery run a little more palatable. Judging from the number of Brooklyn Fare reusable bags spotted around town, the neighbors agree.”
“Beginning with a label redesign, we made every part of the packaging and presentation more sophisticated and expressive of the French-Indochinese aesthetic that characterizes the origins of the liqueur’s recipe. We also worked to communicate the brand story, and its message of high-quality, exotic romanticism throughout all aspects of the brand identity, including advertising, billboards, trade show and in-store displays, a website, recipe books, gift packaging, and even groovy little swizzle sticks.
Both the design and the product have garnered rave reviews, and Domaine de Canton has become an internationally successful brand, trumpeted by Oprah and appearing on “Iron Chef.” The brand identity we created has continued to evolve with the rapid growth of the product’s market.”
Etiquette of Chocolate
“Using Japanese gift culture as an inspiration, we designed packaging that reflected the individual relationships that are celebrated when sharing the gift of specialty chocolate. Each type of emotional relationship is expressed by a ribbon of color that, in turn, represents a particular flavor of chocolate.
The elegant minimal packaging, with its intriguing color-coded system, transforms the product into a gift that satisfies both the sweet tooth and the soul.”
“Worldwide release of Kartell’s own plastic cleaner brand necessitated the creation of an instantly recognized product label. Using the company’s iconic color palette and typography, Mucca created packaging that conveys their brand message in a bold new format.”
Pravda
“We began by creating a Westernized version of an Eastern Bloc identity, beginning with the Cyrillic style logo. That logo evolved into an extensive family of custom typefaces with varying weights and styles, providing a level of authenticity and originality to everything from packaging to interiors. Custom bottle labels attract attention to Pravda’s homemade infused vodkas, and hand-painted interior murals add a sense of drama and mystery, bringing the Soviet-era theme to life.
Although the original sign outside the venue was tiny and the neighborhood was questionable, Pravda attracted the city’s young bright things in droves. Its popularity presaged the transformation of the neighborhood—now a cultural hot spot.”
Rizzoli International
“Rizzoli International recently asked us to art direct the first English translation of La Cucina, the de facto bible of authentic Italian cooking. On the heels of the book’s strong sales, the publisher launched a series of cookbooks bound by the same culinary mission: to discover and document regional recipes from around the world. If you ask us, La Cucina’s success can be chalked up to its impeccable design—and judging by Rizzoli’s decision to hire us again for the next two books in the series, we might be on to something.”
The Gracious Gourmet
“We used clean minimal typography and a vibrant color palette to appeal to the client’s target market: sophisticated home cooks who appreciate quality gourmet products. The packaging’s modern feel gave it instant recognition on the shelf, but we also wanted to convey the homemade essence of the product. So we incorporated classic botanical illustrations, harkening back to simpler times that speak to the brand’s all-natural, artisanal quality.
The rave reviews and repeat orders of the first product release led the company to expand its product line and become a nationally successful gourmet brand. The Gracious Gourmet’s line of 16 products is now carried in 350 stores across the US.”
Sant Ambrœus
“We created a brand identity system for the restaurant that conveys the establishment’s venerable history, preserving their historical logotype and drawing inspiration from their vintage confectionary wrapping paper. Two custom typefaces give a 1930s flavor to menus and packaging, and a rich pink and gold color palette makes their sweet treats and gelato hard to resist. The brand extended to wine and olive oil labels, cookie tins, and gelato cups, as well as an e-commerce website allowing the client to extend their business nationwide.
The iconic packaging has become a symbol of excellence among discriminating city dwellers, and the owners have expanded the brand to restaurants in the West Village and the Hamptons, as well as a separate Manhattan wine bar and catering business. The team also opened a new upscale sister restaurant in the famous Lever House building Casa Lever. Mucca conceived the Casa Lever brand to retain a continuity with the Sant Ambroeus identity.”
