Levant (not) Pizza
Design With Intention: Blending Food, Brand, and Identity.
2025
2026
2025
Category
Apparel & Merchandise Design, Social Impact Design
Type of Project
Client Work
Awards
Features
Challenges
Local restaurant Levant required a custom merchandise design for an upcoming community fundraising initiative. The objective was to create an iconic, wearable piece of apparel that successfully merged the restaurant's established brand identity with a tribute to their cultural heritage. The primary hurdle was avoiding the look of a standard, corporate promotional shirt or a generic campaign tee. The client needed a premium, retail-ready garment that felt authentic, warm, and highly desirable to their local customer base, ensuring maximum engagement and sales for their fundraiser.
Local restaurant Levant required a custom merchandise design for an upcoming community fundraising initiative. The objective was to create an iconic, wearable piece of apparel that successfully merged the restaurant's established brand identity with a tribute to their cultural heritage. The primary hurdle was avoiding the look of a standard, corporate promotional shirt or a generic campaign tee. The client needed a premium, retail-ready garment that felt authentic, warm, and highly desirable to their local customer base, ensuring maximum engagement and sales for their fundraiser.
Strategy
To elevate the garment from a basic souvenir to a compelling piece of streetwear, the design strategy focused on an unbalanced visual hierarchy. By keeping the front of the shirt incredibly minimalist, the back could serve as a large-scale, engaging canvas without overwhelming the wearer. A pivot toward an organic, grassroots aesthetic was chosen to reflect the community-driven nature of the fundraiser. This meant stepping away from rigid, corporate typography in favor of handwritten scripts and custom, hand-drawn line art that felt personal, approachable, and deeply connected to the restaurant's culinary roots.
To elevate the garment from a basic souvenir to a compelling piece of streetwear, the design strategy focused on an unbalanced visual hierarchy. By keeping the front of the shirt incredibly minimalist, the back could serve as a large-scale, engaging canvas without overwhelming the wearer. A pivot toward an organic, grassroots aesthetic was chosen to reflect the community-driven nature of the fundraiser. This meant stepping away from rigid, corporate typography in favor of handwritten scripts and custom, hand-drawn line art that felt personal, approachable, and deeply connected to the restaurant's culinary roots.
Solution
The final design beautifully balances premium subtlety with a striking visual narrative. The front features Levant’s clean, typographic logo positioned on the left chest for a classic, understated look. The back of the garment transforms into an engaging typographic puzzle, where a carefully stacked statement about food and storytelling reveals a hidden acrostic message down the spine. To ensure immediate visual hierarchy, the spine utilizes a distressed, hand-stamped texture in red and green, contrasting perfectly against the quiet, smooth monoline of the supporting black text. The layout is thoughtfully anchored at the base by a custom, black-and-white illustration that organically layers a slice of watermelon behind a slice of pizza, seamlessly unifying the local business's core product with the cultural heritage they are celebrating.
The final design beautifully balances premium subtlety with a striking visual narrative. The front features Levant’s clean, typographic logo positioned on the left chest for a classic, understated look. The back of the garment transforms into an engaging typographic puzzle, where a carefully stacked statement about food and storytelling reveals a hidden acrostic message down the spine. To ensure immediate visual hierarchy, the spine utilizes a distressed, hand-stamped texture in red and green, contrasting perfectly against the quiet, smooth monoline of the supporting black text. The layout is thoughtfully anchored at the base by a custom, black-and-white illustration that organically layers a slice of watermelon behind a slice of pizza, seamlessly unifying the local business's core product with the cultural heritage they are celebrating.
Levant (not) Pizza
Levant (not) Pizza
Design With Intention: Blending Food, Brand, and Identity.
Year
2026
2025
Category
Apparel & Merchandise Design, Social Impact Design
Type of Project
Client Work
Awards
Challenges
Local restaurant Levant required a custom merchandise design for an upcoming community fundraising initiative. The objective was to create an iconic, wearable piece of apparel that successfully merged the restaurant's established brand identity with a tribute to their cultural heritage. The primary hurdle was avoiding the look of a standard, corporate promotional shirt or a generic campaign tee. The client needed a premium, retail-ready garment that felt authentic, warm, and highly desirable to their local customer base, ensuring maximum engagement and sales for their fundraiser.
Strategy
To elevate the garment from a basic souvenir to a compelling piece of streetwear, the design strategy focused on an unbalanced visual hierarchy. By keeping the front of the shirt incredibly minimalist, the back could serve as a large-scale, engaging canvas without overwhelming the wearer. A pivot toward an organic, grassroots aesthetic was chosen to reflect the community-driven nature of the fundraiser. This meant stepping away from rigid, corporate typography in favor of handwritten scripts and custom, hand-drawn line art that felt personal, approachable, and deeply connected to the restaurant's culinary roots.
Strategy
To elevate the garment from a basic souvenir to a compelling piece of streetwear, the design strategy focused on an unbalanced visual hierarchy. By keeping the front of the shirt incredibly minimalist, the back could serve as a large-scale, engaging canvas without overwhelming the wearer. A pivot toward an organic, grassroots aesthetic was chosen to reflect the community-driven nature of the fundraiser. This meant stepping away from rigid, corporate typography in favor of handwritten scripts and custom, hand-drawn line art that felt personal, approachable, and deeply connected to the restaurant's culinary roots.
Solution
The final design beautifully balances premium subtlety with a striking visual narrative. The front features Levant’s clean, typographic logo positioned on the left chest for a classic, understated look. The back of the garment transforms into an engaging typographic puzzle, where a carefully stacked statement about food and storytelling reveals a hidden acrostic message down the spine. To ensure immediate visual hierarchy, the spine utilizes a distressed, hand-stamped texture in red and green, contrasting perfectly against the quiet, smooth monoline of the supporting black text. The layout is thoughtfully anchored at the base by a custom, black-and-white illustration that organically layers a slice of watermelon behind a slice of pizza, seamlessly unifying the local business's core product with the cultural heritage they are celebrating.
Connect to Content
Add layers or components to swipe between.
(03)
PROJECTS
(03)
PROJECTS
