Menu design and print is big business for us in Kaizen. At one stage it felt that almost every new restaurant opening in the city used a trio of suppliers across their design, fit out and food supplies. We worked closely with these partners to understand our customers desires and direction for their new restaurants. Until this day it has cumulated in fantastic results both pre and post restaurant opening. Over our many years in business and many hundreds of restaurant menus designed, we’ve learnt a lot about designing and printing restaurant menus. Today we bring you our top 5 tips for designing your restaurant menu. We use each of these tips in almost every menu. So be assured that if we are using them, they work.
How to design menus for restaurant
The 5 main tips to designing the perfect restaurant menu are
- Start with final content
- Don’t be afraid of colour
- Highlight special items
- Sell your food
- Consider it as a printed menu
Start with final content
Menu design starts off with formatting the content in a readable manner. This typography led design requires final content before starting as changes can disrupt the entire layout. Such changes may cause a complete restart o the project and would be an inefficient way for the designer to work. Inefficiency could lead to more expensive or less time being creative on the project.
Don’t be afraid of colour
As a design studio in belfast, our team of creatives are among the best in Northern Ireland. We have taken the dullest, plainest and most boring restaurant menu designs and brought them to life through considered and practical design where function dictates the design styling. Through the use of colour on a menu can invigorate the senses, can direct decisions and can help elevate choices. However colour must be used in keeping with the brands’ position. It’s unnecessary use can have the opposite effect.
Highlight special items
In any meeting with a client, we always ask about the “Hero” item on the menu. If you had to sell one menu item repeatedly over and over again, what would it be? It could be the most profitable item, the easiest on the kitchen? It could even be the upsell products. Think about this carefully as when it comes to design, there are brilliant options to present them in a manner that enhances selling opportunity.
Sell your food
It’s all well and good having the most amazing quality food and finest presentation, but if you don’t make the menu sound just as appetising, then you’re putting that item at a huge disadvantage. Speak about the food providence, the reason you have chosen that meat supplier and why this dish is so amazing. Write confidently, so your customers buy into the dish before even ordering.
Replace “Chicken Burger & Chips” with Beer Battered Chicken Burger & melted Gouda cheese on a grilled brioche bun with our signature house sauce, crisp lettuce & tomato. Served with Triple Cooked chips.
Consider it as a finished printed item
We understand this may be the first time you have designed a menu, or maybe you’ve just typed it out in word previously. It can be hard to visualise the content when designed and printed. As a design studio, our team will pick the correct font size and type to suit the menu design but also to ensure it’s typographically correct, affording the right size font in the right location. We’ll always send proofs across for sign off and a digitally printed proof for final sign off is always available.
We’d love to chat to you about your restaurant menu design. To get in touch with our team please do call 028 9002 2474. We have worked tirelessly throughout the hospitality sector the island of Ireland and all across the UK.
