Zylberschtein’s Delicatessen & Bakery
Zylberschtein’s is a Jewish-style deli located in North Seattle. It’s quite close to my heart - my husband Josh is the owner, and the deli is central to our family life.
Like many founders, Josh bootstrapped Zylberschtein’s into existence.
After years of working in the food industry, Josh began building his own business in 2014 with a pop-up and wholesale bakery.
Two years later, he had secured a permanent retail location and was operating as Standard Bakery, selling croissants, breakfast pastries, and bread loaves.
At the start of 2019, he shifted the business into Zylberschtein’s Delicatessen & Bakery. This transition encompassed a complete menu change, an interior remodel of the bakery, and new branding.
My Roles
Branding
I developed the visual expression of Zylberschtein’s, including logo, palette, and typography.
Interior Design
I designed the interior customer seating area, advising on paint selection, furniture design, and sourcing fixtures.
Content Creation
Concepted and executed visual assets for use across social media, website, and print advertising.
Branding
His ultimate goal is to feed folks with love, humor, and a sense of belonging.
From a branding perspective, this meant beginning with an honest, straightforward voice and letting the visual expression flow from there.
The deli personifies how Josh interacts with the world.
‘Zylberschtein’ is a long word, and we leaned into that for a page-spanning logo that easily converts to a menu masthead.
The square logo mark is a secondary expression used when the design can’t accommodate the width of the primary logo.
The logo needed to be impactful, simple, and versatile.
Zylberschtein’s logo variations
In 2020, Josh developed a delivery service at the start of the COVID-19 shutdown. His primary goal was to create an additional revenue stream so he could keep the deli’s doors open and its employees paid.
Bagel Club delivered bagels, pantry staples and deli items to customers from West Seattle to Edmonds, and had a huge impact in keeping the deli afloat while bringing food to folks during shelter-in-place restrictions.
The logo came together quickly, combining a flat-style illustration of a chomped bagel and again leaning into the length the name ‘Zylberschtein’.
Zylberschtein’s Bagel Club
Interior Design
Initially, the retail location did not have an interior seating area.
Josh’s first retail business, Standard Bakery, operated with a walk-up window and offered outdoor seating to customers. This was a great solution in warm weather, but left a lot to be desired when the rain arrived in the winter.
In 2018, Josh pushed out the storefront to create a small indoor seating area. The project was scrappy, but it created space for folks to get out of the rain while they waiting for their pastries and coffee.
With Zylberschtein’s, Josh needed to refine and expand the seating area.
There were multiple needs at play:
Increase seating to accommodate more customers for longer periods of time.
Create space for customers waiting for take-out orders.
Create a customer-facing coffee bar, pastry display, and point of sale.
Redesign the flow of the kitchen, adding in a hood, cook line, and additional refrigeration.
Content Creation
I’ve concepted and created imagery for the deli over the years and have loved the freedom and creativity of these shoots.
Projects include:
Product photography to create online ordering in April 2020
Imagery promoting special ordering for Hannukah and Passover
Social media content reflecting monthly specials and events
Creative direction for deli merchandise
As a photo stylist, I was excited to contribute to content creation for Zylberschtein’s.
Future Proofing
Making assets accessible to Zylberschtein’s employees and contractors has been essential.
Initially, I handled the graphic design needs for the deli - adjusting menus, creating social posts, and designing flyers and inserts for the catering division of the deli.
I created a Figma team to house the Zylberschtein Style Guide and share access to visual assets with the deli’s operations manager.
Over time, content and design work has expanded to include additional contractors and employees. I created a Google Drive framework to accommodate shifting software preferences and personnel.