2025
Hospitality
Belfast
Charlie’s Pizza
Charlie's Pizza
A slice to remember
Charlie’s is Belfast’s finest neighborhood pizzeria. We met Marty on a cold evening on Hill St when he was serving pizza from two Gozney ovens, and started a friendship that would become a partnership across every single part of a brand project – one that we’re lucky to have worked on.
After years in the culinary industry across foodservice, in the kitchen, and a five-year stint as Pi Guy, Marty finally got the opportunity to open his own pizzeria. We started work on the brand in April 2024, six months before any lease was signed.
Our starting point was simple – we had to make something that would last. Hospitality businesses often get lucky to run for five years, but this one had to last fifty. How can we design something timeless that still grabs attention at launch?
As good as it gets
For us, a logo was much less important than a cultural execution. We know pizza – we know the difference between sourdough and biga, we know when someone uses low-moisture mozzarella, and we understand why New York is a pilgrimage for pizza fans.
We didn’t get this project because we make better logos – we got it because we know how to leverage culture to do creative work that makes the difference.
The big reveal
The Charlie’s brand was fairly straightforward – a wordmark and supporting design decisions that draw your attention but get out of the way when the pizza arrives.
What excited us was the chance to get involved in everything on the fringes – helping create the social media strategy for launch, shooting photo and video content for online channels, creating a playlist for opening day (De La Soul, Pete Rock, Roy Ayers, etc), and sampling as much pizza as we could get away with.
We even got to collaborate with Ormeau Brewing Co on a Basil Pilsner, designing a new beer based on the stories of punters stealing Charlie’s tins of Strianese tomatoes.
Overall, our job wasn’t to make a logo for a new business.
Our job was to help the new business launch in a way that no-one could miss.
Launch in a way no-one could miss
The queues around the corner, 16k followers, scrambling food reviewers, and general fanfare around someone “finally doing it right” was a celebration of what Charlie’s is all about.
Right now, we’re working on running newsletters, designing football shirts, sourcing and designing pizza boxes, we’ve launched a collaborative beer with Ormeau Brewing Co, and regularly call in for a vodka sausage slice as often as we can.
Charlie’s isn’t going anywhere.
“Hundred Studio launched Charlie’s exactly how I hoped. They were so effective and always brought something new to the table. The best.”