Tuesday, Dec 8 · 6:30 pmWine dinner
Cakebread Cellars
Several courses from the kitchen, each paired with a Cakebread Cellars wine.
RegisterAsk about it
Affissioni
VIA's identity is a billposting wall on Shrewsbury Street: flat, colour-drenched Italian posters, each one dated, pasted up when something is on and pasted over when it ends.
VIA Italian Table · Brand book · Proposal, October 2026
The idea
Why posters, and why it fits VIA.
Most restaurants show a dark room, a plate, and a gold serif. VIA has something they don't: a constant run of dated things to come for. PigFest, winemaker dinners, the suckling pig, the turkey kit, the $25 list. The poster wall turns that calendar into the brand.
Italian
Mid-century Italian poster craft (Depero, Olivetti, Pirelli): flat colour, big type, cut-paper shapes.
Street
VIA means street. The affissioni wall is street furniture, and VIA lives on Worcester's restaurant row.
Current
Every poster carries its dates. When a date passes, the poster comes down. Nothing on the site is ever stale.
Logo: two options
VIA chooses. Both work inside the same poster system; the site can switch between them from the bar at the top.
Option A · Refresh
VIAItalian Table
Keep the gold mark
VIA's existing Roman-capital mark stays exactly as it is; only the world around it changes. Lowest risk, and it keeps the recognition VIA has already built. Shown here redrawn in Cinzel as a stand-in: final files come from VIA's master artwork.
- Always on ink or plum; the gold needs a dark ground.
- Posters carry the colour; the mark stays gold and small.
Option B · Rebrand
Italian Table
The cut-paper VIA
Three letters cut from paper, with a saffron sun rising inside the A: the fire under the spit, the arch of a street, the start of an evening. Built from straight cuts and one arc, so it reproduces at any size, in one colour, on any poster.
- The sun is always saffron, or knocked out in one-colour use.
- Works in ink, paper, or any poster colour with 4.5:1 contrast.
See seven B concepts and three A treatments
Option B in use
Clear space and size
Keep clear space equal to the height of the sun on every side. Smallest size: 64px wide on screen, 18mm in print. Below that, use "VIA" set in Archivo Black.
Don't
- Stretch, outline, or add a shadow to the mark.
- Put the sun in any colour other than saffron (or brick on a saffron ground).
- Set "VIA" in another face and call it the logo.
- Place the mark over a busy photo; give it a poster field.
- Mix Option A and Option B in one piece.
Colour
Four poster stocks, an ink, a paper and the wall. Colour owns whole fields; it's never a thin accent.
Mattone
Oliva
Zafferano
Prugna
Inchiostro
Bianco
Muro
Mattone scuro
A page, by area
Mattone 24%
Muro 20%
Oliva 16%
Prugna 14%
Zaff. 12%
Ink 14%
| Pair | Contrast | Use for |
|---|---|---|
| Paper on Mattone | 6.0 : 1 AA | All text |
| Paper on Oliva | 6.8 : 1 AA | All text |
| Paper on Prugna | 13.9 : 1 AAA | All text |
| Ink on Zafferano | 8.4 : 1 AAA | All text |
| Mattone on Bianco | 5.6 : 1 AA | Links, prices, alerts |
| Paper on Zafferano | 2.0 : 1 Fails | Never |
| Ink on Mattone | 2.8 : 1 Fails | Never for text |
Type
One family, Archivo, used across its width axis the way a poster printer would use wood type: wide and black to shout, narrow to label, regular to read. Free under the SIL Open Font License.
Poster
Black 900 · width 125 · caps · −3.5%
PigFest
Headline
Black 900 · width 112 · sentence case
Three rooms for a party
Label
Bold 700–800 · width 70–85 · caps · +5%
Order by Mon, Nov 23 · Pick up Wed, Nov 25
Text
Regular 400 · width 100 · 17px / 1.55
Meats and poultry turn on the spit. There's fresh seafood, a long list of pastas, and gelato made in the kitchen.
Prices
ExtraBold 800 · tabular figures
$18.99 · $29.99 · $39.99
Cut-paper shapes
Six shapes, cut from the poster colours. Each stands for something real at VIA. They live in a poster's art band, never behind running text.
- Flat fills only. No gradients, outlines or textures.
- Shapes may overlap and bleed off the poster's edge, like paper trimmed after pasting.
- One composition per poster; two or three shapes at most.
The poster
Every offer, event and special is one poster, built the same way. A poster with no end date says so ("for a limited time", "any night").
- Art band. The cut-paper composition, at the top, clear of text.
- Dates. Bold start or end date first, then what kind of thing it is.
- Title. Poster type: the name of the thing, not a slogan.
- Body. One or two plain sentences, and real dishes with real prices when there are any.
- Tear-off tabs. One to three actions, cut like a street flyer: Book, Call, Register, See the menu. On the site the tab tears as you press it.
Photography
Photos are pasted onto posters like a clipping, slightly tilted, never full-bleed behind type. The site has labeled slots ready for VIA's own pictures.
- Real service, real light: shoot during dinner, not on a cleared set.
- Hands, steam, flame, the gelato case, the spit turning.
- Tight crops of one dish, overhead or at table height.
- Dark moody plates on black slate.
- Stock "Italian" props: checked cloths, Chianti flasks.
- Text set over a photo.
Voice
Warm, plain and specific, like a server who knows the menu. Say the dish, the date, the price, the room size.
Through Friday, Oct 31: porchetta, wild boar ragù, a one-pound Berkshire chop.
Indulge in our decadent celebration of all things pork!
Nine or more? See the private rooms.
For larger parties, please contact our events team for more information.
After 4 pm, park in any open space, whatever the sign says.
Ample parking is available nearby.
- Buttons say what happens: Book a table, Order takeout, Call to arrange.
- Dates read the way people say them: Tuesday, Dec 8 · 6:30 pm.
- Italian words where VIA's menu already uses them; no faux-Italian flourishes.
Out in the world
The same poster, sized for each place it goes.
Through Fri, Oct 31
PigFest
VIA · 89 Shrewsbury St
Instagram post · 4:5
Gift card · Worcester Restaurant Group
Gift card
Made on Shrewsbury St
Family style
VIAServes 10
VIAServes 10
Takeout bag stickers
Table menu