SERVICES
— Digital
— Environment
SCOPE
Founded in 2017, The Pastry Section is a contemporary bakehouse nestled in Edinburgh’s Stockbridge—the home of independents. From 5am every day, they bring their luscious creations to life. Led by Lesley Stewart, the team bakes everything themselves on-site from scratch, with favourites such as ultimate brownies, cinnamon buns, lemon meringue tarts and snickerdoodle cookies making regular appearances on the counter. The Pastry Section also boasts a wide selection of locally-sourced teas and coffees, and they also have a small, curated retail section which champions local makers.
Lesley approached us to create a website that utilised the business’ strong visual identity (developed by a close friend) and minimal interior, which was conceived by SPLINTR. We also worked with Lesley to reimagine the countertop and retail displays in order to entice and excite customers.
The Pastry Section’s pre-existing visual identity is bold, memorable and strong. The signature shade of turquoise runs across every customer touchpoint, from tables to stickers. The bakehouse has cemented itself in the local fabric of Stockbridge, and is a firm favourite amongst regulars and new customers as the place to indulge in the city’s most delicious sweet treats.
SPLINTR conducted the entire fit-out, creating a space that customers actually like to spend time in. Due to the increased popularity of the bakehouse, the countertop used to display the day’s bakes soon became problematic. Cluttered and unorganised, it was unable to contain all offerings. Lesley freed up an additional 1m of countertop by removing an integrated, free-standing fridge and we got straight to work.
A crucial first step was to assess the various boards and blocks used to display cakes, pastries, tarts and scones. We replaced them with a selection of storage solutions in birch ply and white acrylic, which better suited the materials used in the fit-out. This brought a new sense of harmony to the countertop and surrounding space.
We meticulously measured the newly enlarged countertop, breaking it down into sections. This allowed us to maximise the use of space, but also experiment with height (something previously unexplored). The layout was standardised, meaning that morning set-up would be seamless and efficient.
The retail displays in the window and at the back of the bakehouse benefited from a similar attention-to-detail. What were once a confused shelving units now operate as easily identifiable retail displays.
We made some additions to the shelving units, such as mesh baskets that suspend from the bottom shelf (to provide extra storage) and metal tags that slide directly onto individual shelves (to display pricing). We also added white information cards to each shelf to tell the customer more information about the product and its maker. We also soured birch ply holders to contain makers’ business cards.
The second phase of the project was to create a website. The brief was to utilise the brand assets, but keep it simple. Simplicity is a thread that runs through all aspects of The Pastry Section—from bakes to interior to design. The website’s primary purpose is to enable the business to be indexed on Google.
The sitemap is small, but relevant. A page to learn more about the business and its founder, a page for directions, a page to contact and a page to place an order. The most work went into the latter.
The Pastry Section’s click-and-collect, bespoke cakes are baked from scratch. The increased demand meant that many hours were often lost to identifying, tracing and fulfilling orders whilst rummaging through an inbox. We eradicated numerous hours of tedious admin by connecting this order form with G.Drive so that Lesley and the team can be instantly notified of orders, and fulfil the brief quickly and efficiently.
The Pastry Section’s website is responsive on all devices—desktop, tablet and mobile. It’s clear and simple design is the perfect equivalent of the bakehouse’s physical space.
What the client said