Case study · Imaginary client
A beach club with a uniform.
Lido is an imaginary client, and we say so. The process is the real one: strategy, identity, wireframes, design, and AI Ready implementation, page by page. Read to the end and you will know exactly how we work.
Lido
Riviera · Est. 1962
Cabins, seafood kitchen, sunsets since 1962.
01 · The brief
The scenario: a riviera beach club, family-run since 1962. The place is loved, the kitchen is serious, but the identity is a collage of signs redone over the decades, and the "online presence" is a Facebook page. Bookings happen by phone, which rings while the owner is in the kitchen.
The brief we gave ourselves: an identity that feels like the riviera without fake nostalgia, and a website that does one thing above all, let people book an umbrella without calling. Two services, one system.
A serif in a swimsuit
The strategy in one line: Lido is not a new venue pretending to have history, it is a true history that deserves a uniform. Every choice starts there.
Strategy, and the road not taken
First direction explored: the "modern" beach club, geometric sans-serif, saturated photos, sunset gradient. It works on Instagram for one season, then ages badly, and above all it erases sixty years of history, the one thing competitors cannot copy.
The chosen direction: vintage hotel signage elegance. An all-caps serif with very wide tracking, three colors that already existed on the beach, the bordeaux of the awnings, the blue of the sea, the white of the linen, and a stripe motif that replaces any icon. The uniform.
The identity system
The wordmark: Italiana, all caps, tracked at 28%. Sixties hotel signage energy, without imitating any specific one.
Typography and motif: the serif speaks, the sans serves, the stripes sign. No icon needed.
Three colors, taken from the actual beach: the awning, the sea, the linen. No 12-shade palette nobody will ever use.
The applications
The numbered cabins: the stripe motif runs along the base of every surface, from towels to doors.
The menu: serif for titles, sans for dishes, prices in bordeaux. Readable in the sun, printable every morning.
The website, page by page
Every section is born twice: first as a wireframe, while changing it is cheap, then as design in the brand mood. Here they are side by side.
Page 01 · The hero
Wireframe · before
Design · after
Tramonti dal 1962
Cabine, cucina di mare, giugno-settembre.
Prenota l'ombrelloneThe decision: the hero answers a visitor's three questions in three seconds, what it is, when it is open, how to book. The blue CTA is the only cold element on a warm page: impossible to miss.
Page 02 · The booking
Wireframe · before
Design · after
Prenota l'ombrellone
We confirm by email within an hour. No phone.
The decision: three fields, not ten. Day, spot, contact. The final line removes the anxiety ("we confirm within an hour") and frees the owner's phone, which was the project's real goal.
Page 03 · The kitchen
Wireframe · before
Design · after
La cucina di mare
The catch changes every day. So does the online menu.
The decision: the menu lives on the site as structured data, not as a scanned PDF. It updates in a minute, and search engines and AI assistants read it dish by dish.
✦ AI Ready, applied
Found by people who ask, not just people who search.
What does an AI assistant answer to "beach club with a seafood kitchen near me"? It depends on what it can read. For Lido: BeachResort and Restaurant structured data with hours, season, and location; the menu marked up with Menu schema, dish by dish; answer-first content (where, when, how much); an FAQ written the way beachgoers actually ask ("can I bring my dog?", "is there parking?"). The same checklist as every Coodie build.
05 · Why an imaginary client
Imaginary client. Real process.
Lido does not exist, and we tell you immediately, everywhere. We prefer a declared concept to a portfolio inflated with clients that never existed. What you just read, the strategy, the rejected direction, the wireframes before design, the explained decisions, the AI Ready implementation, is exactly the path of a real engagement. With a real client only one thing changes: the name on the project.
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