Pappardelle’s Pasta

About This Project

Pappardelle’s Pasta was one of our first clients. We began working with Jim Steinberg in 2003, soon after he purchased the company from the initial founders. Back then, the brand had limited distribution with a few local restaurants and a couple of high volume farmer’s markets in the Colorado resort areas. We were impressed by the quality and the beauty of this premium collection of fresh, frozen and dried pastas, and also, orzos and sauces. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones. In 1993, during World Youth Day in Denver, Pope John Paul II sent over his limo to purchase some of these saintly delights!

To begin our brand development, we started with our proprietary process and immediately identified the opportunity that would become the basis of Pappardelle’s national distribution and company success. Our recommendation was simply to expand farmer’s markets through national franchising. But first the brand’s ID/logo, which needed serious updating. To us, everything about Pappardelle’s revolved around art. The pastas are artistic creations. When lined up side-by-side, they resemble an artist’s palette of color. Simply beautiful. For us, it was only an inspired brush stroke to come up with the brand’s positioning and tagline: “The Fine Art of Pasta”.

For design, we opted for a classical typeface deserving of the products’ premium-ness, and accented by a swoosh of a pappardelle noodle. Bellissima! For future packaging development, we created a design system for brand extension and communication consistency. And to aid the farmer’s market distribution strategy and rollout, we created a farmer’s market “kit-in-a-box”, with signage and merchandising standards. Pappardelle’s Pasta is now a successful national brand, distributed in multiple trade channels. Eccellente e buona fortuna, Pappardelle’s!