Saint-Urbain recreates childhood memories in Massi’s Italian deli rebrand

Building a brand identity from the faintest threads of childhood memory might sound like creative folly, but for Saint-Urbain, it became the foundation of something remarkably tangible. When Massi’s – an uncompromising Italian sandwich shop in Astoria, Queens – approached the multidisciplinary creative agency, founder Alex Ostroff found himself chasing shadows of a restaurant from his youth, one defined by flashes of red hand-drawn lettering and mysterious yellow illustrations of faces and horses. “This was actually a pretty interesting personal project for me and based almost entirely on a faint childhood memory of mine,” Ostroff reveals. “When I was about 5 or 6 my family and I would go to this local Italian restaurant in our neighbourhood and I sort of wanted to recreate it.” What emerged from that nostalgic excavation was far more structured than expected – those yellow figures weren’t random doodles but characters from Scopa, the traditional Italian card game. This discovery unlocked an entire visual language for Massi’s, transforming what could have been another generic deli identity into something with genuine cultural resonance. Saint-Urbain developed a suite of hand-drawn illustrations referencing the suits, figures and symbols from the original Scopa deck, creating a playful graphic system that appears across merchandise, uniforms, signage and collateral. The illustrations channel a comical, welcoming energy that mirrors the inclusive spirit of both the card game and the restaurant itself. The custom wordmark anchors this nostalgic world with deliberate craft, drawing inspiration from classic Italian deli lettering and vintage grocery typography – the kind found on sauce jars, butcher paper and neighbourhood bakery signs from the 1960s. Named after the head chef’s son Massimo (Massi for short), the restaurant demanded an identity with familial warmth, something that felt both established and approachable. “The team mentioned it was important that it had a vintage family restaurant feeling, leaned into Italian bakeries, and would go nicely with a shop with white tile,” Ostroff explains. The resulting palette of warm reds, yellows and flour tones evokes tomato paste, matchbooks and bread bags whilst maintaining the visual confidence of a brand that knows its worth.