Pizza Art

We started an art contest in the mid-1980s and have continued the tradition every few years or so since then. We now have over 300 pieces of Zachary’s pizza art from the past three decades! The winning artwork decorates the walls in all five of our restaurants. We love the art and the artists and are excited and honored to be able to share some of the art on our website!

Cartoon cat wearing sunglasses, sitting with a pizza slice as a bow tie. Speech bubble above says: Pizza on my mind, pizza on my face, Zacharys... always my favorite place! Background is a colorful abstract pattern.

Stephanie Kwan

2007

A surreal painting of a pizza slice with a human face, featuring blue eyes and a red mouth. It wears a blue hat and suit, holding a movie camera. The background has Zacharys Chicago Pizza written in red.

Chris Papa

2001

Illustration of a pepperoni pizza in a box with a red heart, set against a decorative red background. The text reads, Make Pizza Not War, in bold black and red letters.

Ian Ransley

2015

Berkeley-born and raised designer Ian Ransley loves Zachary’s Pizza!! Who in Berkeley doesn’t? But Ian has found a way to graphically express his admiration for the famous deep-dish, Chicago-style pies — not once, but a dozen times.

Ian grew up in the Thousand Oaks neighborhood (near the Solano Zachary’s). His mom still lives in the neighborhood house he grew up. Ian did spend some time away from his beloved Berkeley getting a design degree from UC Davis. In the years since he has designed for Chevron, HP, Cisco and of course, Zachary’s! For the past decade Ian has designed the stadium graphics for the Super Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and currently for the NHL Winter Classic in Foxboro.
Even though Ian has designed the stadium graphics for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos he is known as the guy who won the Zachary’s Pizza poster contest. Ian is a single Dad with two Zachary’s-loving boys, Dylan and Fabien.

SOLD in our 2018 Art Sale and Fundraiser!

Astronaut floating in space holding a pizza with lit candles. Wearing a birthday hat, surrounded by floating candles, Saturn, spaceship, and text saying 1983-2013 and Happy 30th Zacharys Chicago Pizza. Bottom text reads 30 years of out-of-this-world pizza.

Ian Ransley

2012

 

Ian Ransley is a single of father of two Zachary’s-loving boys. Ian is a Berkeley native and a professional graphic designer. He splits is time designing Zachary’s posters and designing for professional sports teams and events including the NHL Winter Classic and the NFL Super Bowl among many other events. He is a dual-citizen of the U.S. And Great Britain. Growing up in a British home he never had pizza so Ian can’t get enough of it now. Ian annoys his two sons using them time and again in many of his art projects.

A retro-style poster featuring a person in a futuristic suit looking at a round pie on a yellow surface, with text reading Zacharys 81¢ and In The Oven. The background is a blend of green and yellow hues.

Lois Rosson

2015

 

A vibrant abstract painting depicting a pizza restaurant with tables, chairs, and pizzas. Signs include Open, Pizza Specials, and We Make It U You Yum. The artwork uses bold yellow, red, and blue colors, with playful geometric shapes.

Ernst

1990’s

Artist Unknown

Retro sci-fi poster titled Forbidden Pizza features a robot holding a pizza. It advertises pizza with titles like Psycho Spinach and Bleu Velvet Cheese, with a UFO and alien landscape in the background.

Bill Crews

2009

Cartoon of a person in blue overalls and a cap walking with a large pizza on their head. They are next to a brick wall with a Zacharys Chicago Pizza sign, and the text Keep on Cookin is above. A yellow fence and houses are in the background.

Larry Holstrom

2007

Colorful poster for Zacharys Chicago Pizza featuring a handprint-designed pizza in the center. Bold text reads Hands Down Best Pizza in Town! against a swirling red, blue, yellow, and green background.

Lisa Clark & Play and Learn Butterfly Classroom, ages 3-4

2012

A colorful illustration featuring red heart-shaped slices of pizza against a purple background. Theres a white text box in the lower right with the words Zacharys Pizza in bold black letters.

Wesley Jensen

2009

Illustrated poster of a boy looking up at a large pepperoni pizza. Text reads The Pizza of Your Dreams! with Zacharys vertically on the right. The boy wears a shirt with the Zacharys logo.

Raquel Royal

2011

A colorful painting depicts cartoonish figures eating pizza at a table. One figure has green skin and another wears sunglasses. A large pizza with various toppings is shared, and the setting appears to be a lively pizza shop.

M. Yamagata

1995

A childs drawing with a princess wearing a green crown, holding a pepperoni pizza slice. Text reads: Zacharys pizza I love you, I love you!!! Princesses love pepperoni pizza! Signed Eva Joseph, Age 4.

Eva Jaeger, 4 years old

2005

Eva, 4 years old Eva 14 years old

When I created this piece my family had moved from Berkeley to Manhattan for a year. When I look at this piece now it conjures up all the emotions of those moments: a longing for home and familiar things like Zachary’s, the excitement and adventure of being somewhere unknown and the joy of knowing that I’d be back to have some pizza soon. And of course, I was 4 and loved Princesses!

My inspiration for this piece was all the things I loved.  Princesses, pink, big art and pizza. I actually didn’t really like Pepperoni (truth be known) but the alliteration was too good to pass up!  The process I used for this piece was to draw it on a smaller piece of paper and then spread out on the floor, with all my markers tossed around, and the paper taped down.  Shoes off and spread across the whole thing I sketched by pencil and then dried out just about every marker pen filling in the spaces.  My brother, who was in 1st grade at the time, was also drawing next to me.  His poster actually was awarded an Honorable Mention and I was happy to be creating our pieces together.

This may be the peak of my artistic recognition.  Since that time the pieces I’ve created are much smaller and much more private, rarely venturing into public space.  I like to express my creativity in crafts, writing, on the stage and on the soccer field.  And my love for Princesses and pizza have also become a bit more subdued as I pursue higher ambitions than just being royalty. The thing I haven’t changed since then is a love for Zachary’s pizza.  Just finished one a minute ago!

Stylized illustration of a building with a large pizza on the roof. The building is labeled Museum of Modern Pizza in white letters on a red background. Geometric patterns and abstract forms surround the central pizza motif.

Museum of Modern Pizza

1980’s

Artist Unknown

Illustrated poster titled Zacharys Deep Dish Pizza features a muscular man holding two steaming pizzas with World Famous and Champion on his belt. The background is red and orange with cartoon style typography.

Weightlifter

2005

Chuck Waite

Illustration of a man in a pinstripe suit and hat holding a deep-dish pizza. Text reads The Capone of Pizza and Zachary’s Chicago Style. Speech bubble says, Dis pie here...just might blow yous away. Pizza images form a background pattern.

The Capone of Pizza

2007

David Loya

An abstract poster for Zacharys Chicago Pizza featuring a colorful depiction of a pizza slice topped with various ingredients and symbols such as a tomato, pickle, pepperoni, and a clover. The number 30 is at the bottom right corner.

Pizza Operation

2012

Jason Tracy

Illustration of a bride and groom smiling and feeding each other pizza from a three-tiered stand labeled Zacharys. Text reads, Love is...3 tiers of Zacharys deep dish. A pizza slicer and roses are on the table.

Lori and William Wallace

2015

My son, William (13 yrs old) and I are deeply grateful to Zachary’s for the joy it brings our lives.  Not only the DELICIOUS gluten free pizza (thank you, thank you!), but also the connection it weaves through community.  We have monitored the art contest for years and have waited for the opening where time and creative spark would coincide and bring us to this moment of participation.  And here we are! The inspiration behind this piece was to weave in the theme of “shared love”.  What better depiction of shared love than a wedding day and the site of a loving groom feeding his delighted bride a slice of Zachary’s deep dish?!  Love IS Zachary’s Pizza xo

A man in a suit and bowler hat holds an umbrella, standing with his back facing the viewer. He gazes at an abstract artwork featuring dynamic red, black, and white swirls. The name Zacharys is at the top, with Its a matter of taste below.

The ConnoisseurHannah de Vries

2015

My name is Hannah de Vries and art has been my passion from a very young age. My entry was inspired by a famous Norman Rockwell painting called “The Connoisseur.” I alluded to the uniqueness of Zachary’s Pizza by making comparisons to the historical context behind Abstract Expressionism of the 1940’s, a subject that I have studied in school. I worked tirelessly for about three days at a wonderful art gallery called ArtU4ia in downtown Martinez to complete this piece. The most fun I had working on it was by far doing the drip pizza; I loved getting messy and wild with the house paint!

I always loved seeing the art that hung on the walls at the Zachary’s College location, and I aspired to enter their art competition for years! Once the Pleasant Hill location opened up closer to my home town, I finally took the opportunity to create something that I was proud to call my own.

Illustrated poster of Zacharys Pizza with two pizzas on motorcycles racing along a desert highway. The pizzas have sunglasses and wheels made of pepperoni slices. There are cacti and hills in the background.

Lynn Smull

2005

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