Responses by Beaucoup Studio.

Background: Amici is a restaurant chain that combines Italian gastronomy and modern coworking spaces. It caters to a wide range of customers, from lovers of good food to professionals looking for a place to meet. The website is designed to provide quick access to information while captivating users through attractive visuals, harmonious presentation and the unique identity of each restaurant.

Design core: Our aim was to create a strong visual identity inspired by vintage Italian design by integrating an immersive dimension that takes elements directly from real-life restaurant menus. One of the site’s key features is its page transitions, particularly those for the restaurants’ pages. We designed these transitions to immerse the user in the unique world of each Amici establishment with the restaurant’s main image integrating through the transition elements, reinforcing immersion. Additionally, we introduced a range of personalized stickers to add a dynamic, festive touch, enabling each restaurant to stand out from the crowd. The site’s footer features an interactive section with stamps inspired by restaurant fidelity cards, offering a visual wink at the end of navigation and accentuating immersion in the Amici universe.

Process: The site’s main objective was to strike a perfect balance between intuitive navigation and a simple user experience, enabling visitors to easily access restaurant information while maintaining a strong, consistent visual identity for the entire restaurant chain. Responsive design was also a central point of our thinking; we wanted to retain the key design elements while offering fluid navigation on all media and quick access to important information. The challenge was to find a consistent animation system to support the identity we imagined, so the animations were carefully thought out to reinforce the site’s identity without compromising the user experience’s simplicity.

Navigation structure: The navigation was designed to immerse the user in Amici’s graphic universe while maintaining the simplicity expected of a restaurant website. This immersion is created through page transitions, where the cover image opens to lead visitors directly into the location’s mood. The feeling is reinforced by the opening animation of the navigation menu, reminiscent of a physical menu presented by a waiter.

Technology: The site was built using WordPress as the CMS with a custom, homemade theme, using the Laravel framework for the front end. We used GSAP to bring animations to life, Lenis by Darkroom Engineering for the smooth scroll and Taxi.js by Unseen Studio for page transitions.