Flour+Water Pizzeria
Building a flagship
When Flour + Water Pizzeria relocated to SF's historic North Beach neighborhood, the team asked us to reimagine the visual identity. The goal was to align with its sister restaurants — Flour + Water and Flour + Water Pasta Shop, which we had recently redesigned — while also giving the pizzeria its own distinctive personality. The branding reflects its quirky, nostalgic, family-friendly neighborhood vibe.
The terra cotta color palette was created to complement the space’s existing striped tile floors. The architects Lundberg Design envisioned a pizza box feature wall, so we designed boxes that would make a bold statement, creating a pattern when stacked. For menus and signage, we created custom letterforms inspired by bespoke mid-century Italian typography.
A strategic challenge was to differentiate two distinct, yet connected parts of the restaurant. One is the expansive pizzeria restaurant with table service. The other is a smaller take-out area with counter service and a few seats, where customers can drop in for a “Big Slice” or ”Boozy Slushie” of the day and play a ‘90s arcade game. The team anticipates opening additional to-go outposts throughout the Bay Area and beyond. With this growth strategy in mind, we gave the smaller area its own name: Flour + Water Pizza Shop. To help signal the different experiences, we designed custom signage and tile mosaics for the separate entrances: a pizza and “+” pattern for the Pizzeria entrance, and a pizza-space-invaders arcade game for the Pizza Shop.
