Boxes, bags and a shopfront for a bakery’s second shop

Second Rise had one shop, a loyal queue and eleven sizes of pastry box, most of them bought whenever the supplier had a deal. When the owners signed the lease on a second shop, they asked us for a logo before the sign-maker’s deadline.

We asked for two mornings behind the counter first.

Timing the counter

On a Saturday, the busiest order is a box of twelve mixed pastries. With eleven box sizes, staff spent longer choosing a box than filling it. We timed sixty orders: the average was one minute and forty seconds.

Four box sizes cover every order the bakery sells. Each folds flat with one tuck and carries the logo on a sticker rather than in print, so the same stock box works for both shops and for the bakery’s catering orders. The average time for a box of twelve is now under a minute.

Keeping the chalkboards

The handwritten chalk labels on the counter were the part of the old shop customers mentioned most. We kept them, and wrote a one-page lettering guide so that every member of staff writes the prices the same way: name on top, price below, nothing in capitals.

A painted fascia

The shopfront fascia was painted by hand on site, to Tomas’s full-size drawing. Painted letters can be touched up by any sign painter, which matters on a street where delivery vans clip the fascia every few months.