If you have a food business, it is a must for you to print takeout menu, a menu for walk-in diners, and an online menu for your website. When designing all of these, you should consider the type of fare you are offering, the interiors of your restaurant, your logo, your target market, and a host of other factors. Basically, it all boils down to designing your menus in such a way that it will appeal to the eyes, mind, and palate of your target diners.
Factors to Consider when Designing Your Menu
So what are these factors that you must consider when designing your menu? Whether you are having a soft opening for your restaurant or if you are relaunching or rebranding your food business, here are the tips that you must remember during the process of designing the menu:
- The placement of the food items
Make the menu easy to read, but not too conventional. If you’re a fine dining restaurant, present the dishes in your menu in such a way that it can be read like a book, from the upper left hand corner going to the right, up then down. A reader will most likely scan the menu first, then read it like a book. The prime spots are usually the top third of the page, as well as the center.
- The images or illustrations
If you are including photos in your menu, make sure that the dishes are professionally shot. Otherwise, the menu would look cheap. Also invest in good quality print to go menus. It’s easy to recognize if a menu was printed on a desktop computer printer because these look cheap – offset printing and professional photography is the way to go. You can also use illustrations, just make sure that the drawings blend well with the color and the typography of the menu.
- The font, color, and overall design of the menu
If you are not including images or illustrations in the menu, go for bold typography and unique colors. Skip the currency sign. If you must include the prices on the menu, make the numbers a lighter shade than the text or the name of the dish – so that the eyes will be drawn away from the figures. To highlight a bestselling dish, use boxes or lines to separate it from all the other items on the menu. If you’re a diner, for instance, organize the menu by separating the starters from the salads, sandwiches, and drinks. When you print carry out menus, only include the quick-to-make and the most profitable dishes. This way, the customer won’t get frustrated with a long wait.
All in all, make sure that the overall design of your menu is something that will make hungry diners look forward to the delicious tastes that will hit their palate.
