Menu Concept
Description
You will be designing for a sit-down restaurant with a seasonal menu. This restaurant must keep costs low each season, as they will be printing new menus often. They have no budget for photography and will need you to create a logotype as well. This is their only location, and they are pricing themselves in the same market as Outback Steakhouse, Pei Wei, or Carrabba’s Italian Grill.
Rules
You must create a color menu printable on a single-sided piece of paper. Landscape or Portrait will be up to you.
No photography. Type and icons only.
Menu items must include descriptions and pricing.
Starting Off
I chose to do an Italian restaurant with the name Apple, or Mela in Italian
Designing a Menu:
We went out and found the following:
4 Appetizers, 3 Salads + Soup of the Day, A list of 4 dressings substitutes, Soup note: Made fresh daily, 4 Specialty Entrees, Served with a salad and your choice of side, 4 Regular Entreés, Served with a side of your choice, Add a side salad for $_______, 4 Sides, 4 Desserts
The following information must be included:
“Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish, eggs, or unpasteurized milk may increase your risk for foodborne illness.”
Beverages: Pepsi products, Non-sweetened tea, and coffee.
Logotype
For this logotype, I wanted to communicate what an apple is. I originally started with the name “la mela”, meaning the apple. However once I started designing I realized that it wasn’t necessary or contributing anything to the design. So, I dropped it. I also decided that the light green wasn’t the clean look I was going for so I also scrapped that. My final logotype is clean, simple, and to me communicates the curved, red goodness that an apple is.
3 Directions
Direction 1:
I wanted to try playing with rules and making them go behind the sections. I chose to go with a classic Italian vibe for my restaurant and wanted to play on that with the font choices.
Feedback: Get rid of the rules, increase readability by increasing margins and decreasing the item description
Direction 2
For this menu, I wanted to play on more of an old-style italian vibe and so I used more of a typewriter looking font. I also considered doing a landscape menu with four columns.
Feedback: Don’t have the line on the left. Fonts don’t match the humanist look of the logotype
Direction 3
With this menu, I tried doing 2 columns with center aligned section headers. I also played around with the size of the logotype and decided to stay with the menu item fonts from the first menu.
FEEDBACK: Increase spacing between sections, add color to section headings, maybe left align the sections, increase margin spacing.
Refining
I ultimately decided on using the third direction I came up with. I thought it was the strongest and had the most potential.
FEEDBACK: Move the lines further into the corners, decrease section heading size and increase weight, make logo bigger.
Receipt
The client has also asked for a custom printed receipt in the same style as your chosen menu.
It must be all black, include an address and phone number, date and time of purchase, 1 appetizer, 4 guest entrees, and 4 drinks with prices, subtotal, tax, blank tip line, and total.
Optional:
A way to calculate the tip, pleasantries (thank you, come again, etc.)
Final Menu
I was extremely happy when I reached this point. When I added that box around the main entrees, I knew I was finished. Everything looked exactly how I imagined and I felt it was extremely strong.
Final Thoughts
This project taught me a lot about the use of type, typesetting, and construction of a menu. Learning to pair fonts, set tracking, and make other choices regarding the type isn’t easy. It takes thought and practice.
The typesetting was the most difficult part of this process. Getting everything to look even and for the lines to be equal on each side of the column was difficult and frustrating at times. I thought I’d never get it to a place I liked it.
Eventually, however, I was able to get to a version that looked exactly how I wanted it. I’m extremely proud of myself for coming up with this design and for sticking it out when things got hard.
Brand Applications
