Cena Sospesa (The Pending Dinner) is a service in Milan where in 28 restaurants every customer can make a donation that goes to people in economical difficulty.
This service is supported by Comune di Milano and Caritas Ambrosiana. The project was developed during the final laboratory at Politecnico di Milano, and is an hypothetical rebranding. The brief required a preliminary analysis of the actual service, and then the rebranding and some campaigns. The work is structured in two phases. The first part had the aim to remake the identity of the service. Then three different campaigns have been developed. A website and an explanatory video were realized. Then were created all the items for the restaurants participating Cena Sospesa and a video with the results of the service. In the end, also a poster campaign and a video (to raise awareness about the service) were developed.
The project therefore includes all phases of a concrete rebranding and relaunch of the service. In the new concept there is a payoff: "Cena Sospesa, variabile di solidarietà (The Pending Dinner, variable of solidarity)". In this sentence, the variable of solidarity is the customer of the restaurant who makes the donation.
For the new identity three materials have been chosen: raw cotton canvas, cream laid paper, and poplar wood. The symbols of the logo have different meanings: "+" stands for "more donations", "=" is "more equality", "x" is "more and more benefits for the city". To choose the colours for the logo it has been done a statistical chromatic: shooting the main hall of every restaurant involved in the service and then using an algorythm, the three colours of the logo have been extrapolated. The typography has two fonts: American Typewriter™, a monospaced that gives a "handmade" mood, and Brown™, a sans–serif for the headers.