CIAO! pasta to-go /branding/

Overview

CIAO! is a bold new take on fast-casual pasta—an identity built to disrupt tradition and resonate with a young, urban, no-filter generation. This is pasta for the TikTok age: messy, loud, and shareable. My goal was to create a visual and verbal identity that matched the energy of the product: fast, craveable comfort food that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Challenge

Most pasta brands lean into heritage, rustic charm, and family tradition. CIAO! needed the opposite. How to make pasta relevant for a youthful audience constantly bombarded with content and craving authenticity—with no patience for cliché or polish?

Solution

I developed a visually disruptive and culturally fluent brand with a punchy tone, clashing colors, and raw photography. CIAO! doesn’t whisper nostalgia—it shouts chaotic fun. The creative strategy was anchored around the idea of “Nonna would never. We did.”—a line that proudly acknowledges the rebellion against tradition.

CIAO! positions itself not just as a place to grab pasta, but as a cultural brand with humor, style, and bite. The project demonstrates how food branding can shift from nice to necessary—competing not just with other restaurants, but with attention itself. This concept blurs the lines between hospitality, fashion, and meme culture—and it’s exactly what the new generation of diners wants: quick, loud, relatable, and postable.