Oregano’s – Neighborhood Italian Joint |

Building a Brand Universe from a Single Creative Insight (2008–2014)

Project Details

Client: Oregano’s
Services: Creative Direction / Brand Strategy / Concept Development / Copywriting / Illustration
Timeline: 2008–2014

The Problem

Oregano’s had an era without an identity. Checkerboard patterns and pun laden billboards signaled “1950s” without saying anything specific about who Oregano’s actually was.

The Insight

I saw an invitation in the small musical notes already sitting in their existing system. Record albums weren’t decoration, they were the authentic cultural artifact of that moment in time, loaded with emotional resonance, design language people already trusted, and had infinite thematic range.

The System

I built Oregano’s Records myself, start to finish. I provided the concept, the copywriting, the art direction, and every illustration. Each menu became a distinct fictional LP, with its own title, copy voice, and illustrated world, unified by a system I designed: SET numbers, LP badges, stereophonic callouts, Hi-Fi marks. The “Did You Know?” back-cover copy was designed to extend the label’s fictional family history in the same voice as the front.

What Cha Cookin

Cruise In

Demure & Delicious

Dive in

Home for the Holidays

Neighborhood Joint

Stomp n Wail

Tiki Paradise

Back Cover

The Expansion

Once established, I took the system off the page myself. The hand-painted murals carrying the illustration style onto the architecture, interior and exterior, across all locations. All of this design work was created to extend the same brand voice from the menus into physical space at scale.

World Building

I designed seven custom wine labels, each with its own distinct illustration style, then rounded out the world with marketing badges and collateral, all under the brand system I built and managed across every touchpoint. Wine labels were applied to bottles and inhabited the interior space on shelves and in the kitchen providing kitsch and comfort to the customer experience.

The Results

I ran the Oregano’s Records campaign as sole creative director and brand steward for 6 years. Creating all menus, murals, wine labels and collateral while the client won a Regional Gold Addy, a National Silver Addy, enjoyed extensive press coverage, and expanded to five additional locations through the 2008–2014 recession.