Restaurant Menu Design | Restaurant Menu Designer

The success of your restaurant depends upon the brand you create for your establishment and the style of the graphic design. Part of your brand is your menu design. Good restaurant menu design is creative and a combination of exciting visuals, appropriate color, enticing copy, menu size, and type of material used.

Here are some answers to typical questions I receive about menu design:

What do you want your restaurant menu design to accomplish?
You are creating an image and a brand for your restaurant – that image is not only based upon the quality of the food and the interior design of your restaurant, but also how you make your ideal patrons feel when they come into your restaurant and pick up your menu. Reading a menu is very tactile: what you feel and what you see creates a subconscious impression upon the client and can lead them to purchase higher end menu items and recommend your restaurant to family and friends. In short, second to your food, your menu is the most important part of your brand.

Your restaurant menu design should create excitement, anticipation, longing, and happiness! You can only accomplish these things with an experienced designer

Restaurant Menu Design
What design style should you attempt in your restaurant menu design?
This depends completely upon your brand and the image you want to portray. Is your restaurant old world or modern, with an Asian flair or a distinct American feel? Do you target families with children or baby boomers who want a sophisticated meal without their children? Is the atmosphere casual or elegant? What price point are you targeting? Mid range or higher end? Budget or special occasion only?
Restaurant Menu Design

What menu items should you focus on in your restaurant menu design?
There are several ways to approach this issue. Of course you want to offer food options in order of sequence such as drinks, appetizers, salads, main course, and dessert. However, you should also have table tents highlighting specialty drinks, appetizers, or desserts. This will help you increase your overall ticket price per customer. You can also place emphasis on certain dishes in the menu such as specialties of the house, popular items, or seasonal dishes. In addition, you will want to offer your desserts on a separate menu so that you can tempt diners with another dish at the end of their meal, even if they are full.

What size should your menu be?
This depends completely upon your brand and how you want to position it. Providing an experience for diners when they come to your restaurant is the key. As an experienced restaurant menu designer, I usually base the size and shape of the menu on what the restaurant is offering and how it relates to the brand. The most unique menus I have seen were: a pizza restaurant with a menu inside a Frank Sinatra record album jacket circa 1950, a menu in the shape of an airplane at an airport terminal, and a menu with wild colorful illustrations of wine glasses.

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Restaurant Menu Design

Dana W. Ball is the Art Guy, a restaurant menu designer that can design all the following menu types:
Italian Restaurant Menu Design • Pizzeria Restaurant Menu Design • Neighborhood Restaurant Menu Design • Café Menu Design • Chinese Menu Design • Mexican Restaurant Menu Design • French Restaurant Menu Design • French Café Menu Design • Japanese Restaurant Menu Design • Sushi Menu Design • Seafood Menu Design • Steakhouse Menu Design • BBQ Restaurant Menu Design • Breakfast Menu Design • Dessert Menu Design • Ice Cream Menu Design • Bar Menu Design • Martini Menu Design • Wine Bar Menu Design • Champagne Menu Design • Coffee Bar Menu Design

 

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