Identity · Environment · Systems
State Street
A beloved campus mess, re-wayfound. The stickers kept the soul. Everything else got its own job back.
I an's Pizza on State Street is a UW-Madison campus fixture. Mac-n-cheese pizza by the slice, a line out the door at 2 a.m., student favorite, alumni pilgrimage, tourist stop. The walls, by the time we arrived, were a living collage of rogue stickers slapped on every flat surface by students, regulars, and visiting bands. A beloved mess1 that had grown into a wayfinding problem. Customers struggled to find the line, the menu, or the register.
The brief was about separating the brand from the friction and giving each its own zone. The charge in one sentence: make the stickers the hero and let every other surface do its real job.
Build the spine before the skin.
Read the mess
Twelve visits, at lunch rush, at midnight, at 2 a.m. Audited every sticker, every scribble, every surface. Made note of what regulars loved, what blocked the line, and what confused first-time customers.
Separate brand from friction
"Chaos as Feature." Not critique, not scrub. Every beloved business accumulates mess the owners love, the customers love, and nobody wants to clean up. The lazy move is to flatten it. The thesis was to isolate the brand and engineer the rest for clarity.
Commission the wallpaper
A "stick it here" wallpaper. A bold pattern that invites patrons to add to the collage in one dedicated zone. The sticker culture keeps growing on a surface built for it. Every other wall in the room is now allowed to be readable.
Wayfinding + signage
A system that moves people through the line, to the counter, and out the door without a wasted second. Menu boards, price rails, counter graphics. Typographic hierarchy strict enough that a first-time customer at 2 a.m. finds the slice she wants in under fifteen seconds.
Mural + custom patterns
Custom graffiti mural that anchors the room and gives the space its own visual identity instead of borrowing one from the sticker culture around it. A small system of repeating elements across walls, surfaces, and touchpoints that reward a second look and keep the space feeling alive between visits.
Six surfaces, one room.
Capabilities
What this chapter exercises.
Search keywords
Some spaces
have earned their chaos.
Spring 2026 slate. A handful of engagements open. If your room has more personality than it has wayfinding, we can help with the second half without touching the first.