Zizzi is redesigning its outlets with the help of new and emerging illustrators. The illustrators will apply illustrations directly to walls and fittings in response to briefs set by Pia Fairhurst, Zizzi’s head of design.
All the restaurants will be redesigned to feature an open-kitchen design. The lighting and color shades used will vary according to the geography and typology. Local themes and history will form the basic inspiration for the design scheme for each outlet.
Brown Architecture Studio and Dover Design are appointed to implement the design concepts. The firm will help in creating the brief by researching the history and character of the restaurant’s local areas.
The restaurant at Didsbury, where the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was founded, will get design makeover suiting the locality. The walls of the Winchester branch, which was home to the Hampshire Chronicle until 1972, will be adorned with copies of the newspaper. The space will feature old printers’ tables and chests, and an antique typewriter to reflect the building’s heritage. The outlet will also feature a Moooi Horse lamp, referencing Winchester’s Elizabeth Frink equine statue ‘Horse and Rider’. The Canary Wharf outlet will get huge, 150cm-tall light fittings that look like big paper bags.
The changes are implemented not only in the interior design aspects. Uniforms of the staff have been redesigned, along with new table settings, crockery and glassware.
Zizzi is a chain of Italian restaurants owned by Ask Restaurants. There are currently 87 such outlets in the UK.
