I spent nearly two years working at The Pizza Joint while freelancing as a designer, giving me a firsthand look at the personality behind the restaurant. It’s casual, colorful, a little unconventional, and shaped as much by the people and atmosphere as the food itself.
During that time, I occasionally discussed the possibility of redesigning the website with the restaurant’s owner. The project never formally moved forward, but the idea stayed with me. I wanted to explore what the website could become if the character of the restaurant itself became the starting point for the digital experience.
The website should feel like the restaurant.
The personality was already there.
The Pizza Joint already had a visual personality that felt informal, colorful, and a little rough around the edges. Rather than replacing that character with a polished restaurant aesthetic, I wanted the website to embrace it.
I built the visual direction around oversized typography, warm colors, bold borders, and candid photography—creating an intentionally playful system that could carry the restaurant's personality while keeping the experience straightforward and easy to navigate.
Built to feel like The Pizza Joint.
The final direction brings the restaurant’s personality into a simple, practical website built around the things customers actually need—finding the menu, ordering food, discovering specials, and learning more about the restaurant—without losing the color and character that make The Pizza Joint distinctive.
Personality where it can be. Clarity where it needs to be.
The menu keeps the visual language expressive while prioritizing quick scanning across categories, dietary information, and a clear path into online ordering.
One system, different reasons to visit.
Specials and catering extend the same visual language across very different customer needs, allowing each page to establish its own hierarchy without feeling like a separate experience.
Because the project was developed independently, the next step would be working with the team to understand how the restaurant has evolved, validate the needs of the business and its customers, and refine the concept into a website that could work in the real world.
Working at The Pizza Joint gave me a perspective I wouldn't have had from approaching the project as an outsider. I wasn't trying to reinvent the restaurant or give it a new personality—the challenge was translating the character that was already there into a digital experience that still felt practical and easy to use.
Knowing the place changed how I designed it.
