The concept for the restaurant is inspired by the golden years of New York’s Little Italy – a timeless melting pot of old and new, where classic dishes are constantly reinvented and brought to new life. The name Ciccio’s is derived from Italian and means “chubby boy” in the most tender way. It symbolizes a lust for all the good things in life.

The logotype, typography and colours represent the combination of the traditional Italian and the urban New York. The carefully selected interior details and the solid materials, together with a true to concept identity, have created an authentic atmosphere that will age beautifully for generations to come.

Span and the Emmy Award-winning performance collective Manual Cinema co-created a short film and original theatrical work entitled Countdown that combines handmade shadow puppetry, live actors, music performance, and Span’s digital animation.

Countdown follows an unnamed protagonist as she attempts to escape from numbers that frantically shift around her. Beginning with the handmade sets and projected cinematic techniques by Manual Cinema, the piece visually evolves into a 3D digital world created and animated by Span.

Countdown was conceived by partner John Pobojewski who led the art direction, design, and animation for Span’s digital landscapes together with Zach Minnich and Valeria Bernal. Manual Cinema’s Sarah Fornace, Drew Dir, and Julia Miller led the story development and puppetry performance. Music and sound was composed by Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter.

The numerals set throughout the piece include custom typography drawn by Valeria Bernal and Nick Adam, as well as the most amount of typefaces we’ve ever used, including: Adieu, HWT Aetna, Bodoni, Camera, Central Avenue, Dirk, Eklips, Empire Fold, Geometric, Gravity, Hoefler Text, Inline, HWT Konop, Megavolt, Sharp Grotesk, Trois Mille, United Sans and WTF Empire.

Manual Cinema use “vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble to transform the experience of attending the cinema and imbue it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality.” They have received national recognition by the New York Times and were featured in the 2021 film remake of Candyman directed by Nia DaCosta and produced by Jordan Peele.

One way / 9th Avenue, set in Central Avenue

Custom drawn numerals 4 and 3

Weather forecast, featuring HWT Konop, ABC Gravity and Sharp Grotesk

Running past the number 8, set in United Sans

From left to right: Dirk (4); Bodoni (23) and a yet unidentified typeface used for the number 24

Door number set in HWT Aetna

Tumbling numbers 9. Visible here are Adieu, United Sans and Hoefler Text

Trois Mille in use for the number 60, the ultracondensed numbers 40 on the right use ABC Gravity

Visual design experiment, exploring Risography techniques for poster design, showcased in the completion of the Master's in Visual Design at Elisava.

We opted for the Central Avenue typeface to infuse the human touch into the iconic 1975 song “Llorarás” by Oscar D’León.

A collaboration with Victor Herrera brought this project to life.

The Jazz at Lincoln Center website pairs two condensed types for most of their content. Tungsten (Hoefler & Co.) is used in all caps for headlines and navigation, paired with the narrow width of National 2 (Klim Type Foundry). A page dedicated to a series of concerts with Charlie Parker uses Central Avenue (Colophon) our headlines.

Double and Central Avenue in use for Bucket Fermentation, a Quebec company specializing in lacto-fermentation. Their name, branding and packaging were handled by Studio Miles:

Bucket Fermentation is a Quebec company specializing in lacto-fermentation. The owners wanted to market products made from organic and local ingredients. Being a start-up company, the challenge of this project was to create the DNA and the foundations of this brand to give them solid tools to successfully establish themselves in the agrifood market.

We have created a range of labels whose aesthetics reflect a craftsman and human side. Created with a particular attention to detail, the visual of the labels is a nod to the rigorous work of the production of lacto-fermented food products.

Double is an exploration in extremes. The family evolves in a linear way but on two axis at the same time. The heavier it gets, the wider it gets. For Bucket Fermentation, Double is used from X Small up to Large.

As a certified organic, plant-based tree water, Sapsucker is sourced using simple production methods, with a focus on sustainable forests. Nothing is overly complicated, and no artificial ingredients or preservatives have been added — sipsapsucker.com

Vanderbrand was engaged by Lower Valley Beverage Company (LVBC) to rebrand and reposition Sapsucker within the growing sparkling water market. This required a brand strategy and identity to position the beverage for global brand recognition. We worked closely with LVBC to create a holistic brand with a clear and consistent approach across the brand identity, product naming, packaging, copywriting, digital applications, social media, and art direction.

The brand identity for Sapsucker is strongly informed by its Canadian roots. The wordmark takes cues from Canadian nostalgia including local sport apparel and retail packaging. Pairing the historically referenced Central Avenue (designed by Studio Makgill and released at Colophon Foundry, 2011) with the clean-cut Favorit (Dinamo, 2016) and a modern graphic language results in a visual system that is appropriate, distinctive, and flexible for varied scales and applications.

Temps Libre (“leisure time”) is a coworking venue, and a neutral and non-commercial place that promotes exchange and meetings.

El Monocromo designed an award-winning identity for Salvo Patria, a restaurant located in the Chapinero neighborhood of Bogatá. The restaurant revisits local materials and ingredients and seeks to establish new relationships and connections between them.

Using GT Pressura the identity explores the relationship between manual processes, the local history of the locality of Chapinero and its architecture. It brings on details from its English inspired houses built in the past century (including the house were the restaurant is based).

Design Direction: Juan Pablo Mejía
Project Management: Juan Arenas
Design: Alejandra Aguacía, Nicolás Galeano & Juan Pablo Mejía