When clients approach us for digital experience design, they typically engage us to create a singular online experience. One brand, one website. With our friends at Hai Hospitality, the Austin-based restaurant group responsible for the iconic Uchi family of restaurants, the ask was a bit more complex.

Inspired by the balance and formal precision of Japanese design, we devised a grid-based system for the website design that quickly became referred to as, “Bento.” Bento became the connective tissue and repeatable framework that tied all three of the brand sites together. Brand-specific color palettes, patterns, and textures as well as imagery of signature dishes, desserts, and cocktails give each site its own unique expression. To add more spontaneity and energy to the Bento framework, we overlaid the grid in places with large, top-down dishes and cocktails.