BRAND IDENTITY AND STRATEGY
Cry Baby
Secret Pizza
Visual Identity, Packaging & Guerrilla Advertising for a Brooklyn, New York-based Pizza Pop-Up
Key Objectives:
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Design three unique brand and identity systems.
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Ensure designs are adaptable for traditional brand applications, including packaging and merchandise.
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Create eye-catching assets for guerrilla marketing efforts
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Establish a flexible brand system that conveys presence and creates intrigue without product disclosure.
Tools Used:
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Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop
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Figma
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1:1 interviews
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Contextual research
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Competitor analysis
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Trend scanning
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Generative AI (Brand Direction #3)
Cry Baby Pizza is a Brooklyn-based, word-of-mouth-only takeout service offering pizza and other products to locals in the know. I created three distinct visual identity directions, each designed to stand out in a competitive market and adapt seamlessly across various channels, including packaging, merchandise, and guerrilla marketing. I strategically used bold, evocative visuals to establish brand presence and generate curiosity without explicitly revealing the product or service.
Design Outcomes At-a-Glance:
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Developed brand strategy rooted in real-world user behavior and community culture
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Delivered marketing-ready visuals designed to convey identity with minimal information
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Executed flexible design solutions aligned with diverse brand applications and environments
Research and Concept Development:
Initial client interviews and targeted market research informed the strategic direction for Cry Baby Pizza. The effort included examining the expectations of a sophisticated, urban audience, analyzing competitor brands in the food pop-up and takeout space, and identifying current visual trends in independent food ventures and guerrilla marketing. These insights shaped the development of three distinct brand directions—each designed to resonate with a culturally attuned audience while meeting the practical needs of low-overhead, high-impact brand deployment.
Brand Directions:
Brand 1: This direction builds on a playful, illustrative aesthetic centered around a bold, crying character. The cry motif is both literal and emotional, positioning the food as so good that it provokes an exaggerated response. The repeated use of “SHHHH” adds a dual meaning: both soothing a crying baby and reinforcing the idea of the brand as a local secret.
Brand 2: This direction draws heavily from vintage comic books and soap opera aesthetics to dramatize the emotional urgency of craving good food and not finding it. It positions Cry Baby Pizza as the mysterious, secret solution to culinary disappointment. The exaggerated visuals and tone inject humor and drama into an otherwise ordinary moment, making the experience feel larger than life.
Brand 3: This direction relies on surreal, AI-generated imagery of crying babies dressed in vintage pastel outfits to literalize the brand name most directly. The images evoke a retro children’s portraiture style, creating a dissonant and humorous effect when paired with bold, modern typography and deadpan copy. The result is a visually clean, image-first identity that uses absurdity and contrast to highlight the intensity of food cravings in a humorous, relatable way.
Deliverables
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Primary and secondary logo files
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Full color palette and usage guide
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Typography selections with hierarchy specifications
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Guerrilla marketing assets (stickers, posters, flyers)
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Packaging mockups (pizza box, labels)
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Merchandise designs (tote, mug mockups)
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Brand direction PDF with rationale and usage suggestions
Final Direction and Client Use Outcomes:
The client selected the playful, character-driven brand direction as the foundation for their upcoming launch. The final identity that I created embraces humor, bold illustration, and guerrilla-ready visuals to support their secretive, word-of-mouth business model. It sets a flexible visual tone that can scale across packaging, merchandise, and marketing as the business grows toward its planned debut later this year.