i Fichi

i Fichi Secchi in Vada is where it all began: warm, retro and a bit chaotic. StraFichi is more refined, a place for the evening. On the site, each has its own colour and its own tone: red for StraFichi, yellow for i Fichi Secchi, olive green for the catering.

Every page opens with photos of the venue scattered across a table, printed with a white border. I custom-built the site on WordPress, and the partners update the menus and photos from the dashboard.

I designed a different movement for every page. As the site opens, the asterisk from the logo spins while the photos land, then bursts and makes way for the home page.

On the About us page, the line ‘I Fichi è’ (‘i Fichi is’) builds up one piece at a time, and each piece drops another photo onto the pile. Further down, the story from 2017 to today draws itself as you scroll.

Alcoholic or not, the base, the profile, the flavour: the cocktail finder asks four questions and suggests three drinks from the menu, plus two classics for anyone who would rather play it safe.

Every table has a QR code that opens a page built like an app: the food, the aperitivo, the cocktail list and the cocktail finder, in Italian or English, with nothing to download.

At the bottom of every page there’s the venue’s playlist, on a player drawn in code. For StraFichi, a cassette Walkman: press play, the door closes and the reels turn. For i Fichi Secchi and the catering, a record player.

We launched the site at Pimp my etichetta, the night the new label for i Fichi’s red wine was painted live. You scanned the QR code, took the quiz and found out which member of staff you were. Then you went up to the bar to collect their card.

The twelve cards share one style, but each one has the personality of the person on it. Some were signed: if you drew one of those, you won a drink.