Corner Bakery

Reinvent a Brand's Voice, Journey & Store Design

All under one roof...

VGS helped Corner Bakery re-think positioning in the crowded fast-casual marketplace to create ownable messaging, new identity as well as a brand new store experience for the future.

Corner Bakery, under new leadership at the time, was looking for a way to differentiate and re-tell its story in artisan, local, American-Italian roots. Many of the key factors to why their brand is so special, their food is so tasty, and customers love the brand just weren't shining through in the current store design, and even more so in the brand's identity & messaging.

New Identity, Logo & Messaging:

Enter VGS... Utilizing our internal studio (Studio D Creative), we were able to help Corner Bakery discern what about the brand was truly ownable, and highlight this in a more sophisticated strategy on identity, typography, logo usage and photography. As seen below, we proposed taking them in a much more sophisticated direction, and even playing with the word "kitchen" in the name itself to better tell the story of the offering. This then led quickly to graphic styling and marketing messaging we felt was right for the brand, setting it up for success for years to come.

Store Design for The Future Of The Brand...

The next step was helping Corner Bakery work through how to best place these new messages, identity marks and thinking into the customer journey. We helped them think through both existing store portfolio, and what a future state Corner Bakery could look like. Starting with sketches of theoretical experience touch-points led quickly to full detail renderings, drawings and design development of each detail within the space. The new design was meant to breath life into the American-Italian heritage, and bring a sense of modernity to the feel of the space.

Ideation to Execution:

The concept came to full fruition in a flagship location located at the corner of Michigan & Wacker Ave. in historic downtown Chicago. All graphic & decor elements were fabricated by VGS on the heels of the design exercise. All millwork was designed by VGS, and materials, furnishings and lighting all specified by VGS' internal design practice, Studio D.

The project was a true testament and proof of concept for our model of designing with an end deliverable in mind. The prototype ended up being a package Corner Bakery could take to remodels, new stores, and many various store footprints easily and effectively.

See below for more images from the project.