A Deliciously Branded Solution

Possibly the best family-owned Italian restaurant in Northeast Florida, Toscana Little Italy found itself in a bit of a brand conundrum. The brand identity and online presence were in conflict with the actual restaurant experience, which features amazing food, fine wine and great service within an elegant, friendly and relaxing environment. 

 

The brand identity, however, conveyed a very different story … encountering the Toscana Little Italy logo without personal experience would lead you to believe it was a pizzeria that isn’t some place you would go for a nice meal or evening out. This issue was further compounded by its website, which was not mobile friendly, did not enable easy access to the restaurant, did not have an easy to read or navigate menu and was generally difficult to navigate … the one thing it did very solidly is perpetuate the pizzeria vibe which is not the Toscana experience whatsoever. 

 

Toscana Little Italy needed a brand refresh that delivered a consistent end-to-end brand experience across all touch points. A brand that accurately represents Toscana Little Italy and promotes both guest visits to the restaurant and takeout orders. 

 

Canvasblu delivered an entirely new brand identity and website that brings the Toscana experience to life online, giving it the swagger, style and sophistication that perfectly suits the owners as established restaurateurs.  The effort included the creation of a new logo, color palette, tone and communication style, original photography, website architecture, website design and custom software development.

 

The Canvasblu team has a depth of restaurant category experience that includes guests’ online behavior when engaging with restaurant websites, their primary online goals/missions and insight into the evolving dietary and nutritional requirements of guests.

 

As such, it was clear the platform would need to be a custom solution that is light, fast and mobile first. It would need to enable a high-level of customization and tagging for various entrees that were vegetarian, gluten free or perhaps contain food allergens (like dairy, eggs or shell fish). The platform that was delivered ended up being the 1st release of LightBlu CMS that is specifically designed around the online goals that restaurant websites must achieve.

 

Updates to the LightBlu CMS platform are in development that will begin to automate some operational and administrative tasks. The second release of the platform is scheduled for Q3 2019.