Mellow Mushroom
Mellow Mushroom is a pizza chain of more than 150 locations, known as much for their fun, hippie-inspired culture as for their great food. The MODE team approached the task of revamping their web presence and identity by revering the laid-back persona and sense of individuality afforded to their different locations. We went in a loose, hand-drawn direction that serves as a versatile platform for the brand without stepping on the unique customizations found at individual stores.
Agency: MODE.
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The redesigned logo uses a combination of hand-drawn imperfection and misprint-inspired distortion. Mellow Mushroom works with many artists and gives its individual locations near autonomy to create their own branding, so this corporate-level logo had to embody the brand personality while still comfortably co-existing with dozens of other variations used at different stores.
"Mel" character illustration by Buddy Finethy
The Mellow Mushroom website features a heavy focus on illustrated doodles brought to life through subtle ambient animations, giving the site a lively, tongue-in-cheek feel. Being developed in the heyday of Flash, an entire suite of fun custom preloaders was a necessity.
Responding to the unique level of autonomy that individual Mellow Mushroom stores are given, we accommodated a great deal of content on each store's page, including separate menus, specials, and social feeds.
Design: Alex Westray, Maxim Vakhovskiy
Art Direction: Maxim Vakhovskiy
Creative Direction: John Pietrafesa
Illustration: Dusty Griffin, Buddy Finethy, Alex Westray
Animation: Alex Westray
