Gelato Palace is located in Phoenix, Arizona. Their ethos embraces both the tradition of fine Italian gelato and the heritage of the American Southwest. The gelateria takes pride in their more conventional offerings as well as flavors of their own design—from hazelnuts and mascarpone to pine nuts and blue corn. Because of this, quality ingredients are important to Gelato Palace.

The logo for Gelato Palace was inspired by the architecture of Italian palaces, especially cloisters with their arches and columns, and by the colors and visual softness of adobe structures in the American Southwest. The tints help imply perspective as the arches recede. The lettering is based on signs for Italian foods and restaurants.

In addition to the receding arches in the Gelato Palace logo, I played with other ways of bringing dimension and depth to the designs by overlapping text, bleeding elements off the page, and elongating the arches into tinted bands.

Gelato Palace is a friendly and engaged company that hosts a yearly gelato festival with other local vendors. This six-panel brochure is an informational invitation to the event. I used a combination of photos, hand-drawn illustrations, and vector art to imbue the brochure with a festive sensibility. The illustrations are whimsical and help bring an informality to the invitation appropriate for this family event.

In Gelato Palace’s annual report, I was able to develop and expand aspects of the brand ethos which I hadn’t been able to fully explore before: success is built a little at a time, small things are worth celebrating, and recipes are a large part of the business’s success.

I chose to bring back many elements I had used in previous designs: colored bands are a part of the page structure, as well as a means of highlighting the current year’s financial numbers on the balance sheets; a gradient spans the background of the spreads as it does inside the pocket folder; the cover features a duotone image; and whimsical hand-drawn charts illustrate statistics. These design elements help maintain brand continuity and message.