Slice Fiction: A Joburg Pizza Brand World

Slice Fiction is a self-initiated pizza brand built at the intersection of food and cinema. The project began as a way to get my creative energy moving again after several months of inactivity.

What started as an identity exercise became a complete brand world for young movie lovers, pizza people and anyone looking for a comfortable place to spend time away from home.

There are plenty of places to buy food, but fewer neighbourhood spaces built around a specific shared interest. I saw an opportunity for a pizza shop that gives movie lovers more than themed decoration. The entire experience could behave like part of a film.

The brand needed to feel like the kind of place where people could arrive for a slice, settle in, quote films, discover something new and feel at home.

Build a pizza brand that behaves like a cinema, turning every slice and customer touchpoint into part of a story.

Cinema is not applied as decoration. It shapes the language, product names, packaging, environment and way customers experience the brand.

The idea developed into a complete identity and customer experience, including a custom logo and display typeface, a pizza mascot, menus, pizza packaging, stickers, promotional posters, a social-media system, a storefront, outdoor signage, movie-ticket-inspired receipts and branded cups designed to work together.

Each element contributes to the same world. The menu reads like a programme, posters announce pizzas as new releases, and the receipt resembles the ticket customers might receive before a film.

The visual language combines janky hand-drawn illustration with the drama of vintage film advertising. Red, yellow, cream and green bring the warmth and familiarity of a neighbourhood pizza shop, while bold display typography gives the brand cinematic presence.

Checker patterns, imperfect outlines and visible print texture keep the identity tactile and human. The compositions are energetic without becoming random, allowing the brand to feel playful, expressive and distinctly Joburg.

The mascot is the detail I am proudest of because it gave the brand a recognisable personality and helped connect the different touchpoints.

This project taught me that the smallest details matter. A cup, sticker, receipt or line of copy may seem minor on its own, but together those details determine whether a brand feels like a logo placed on objects or a world people can genuinely enter.