Mexican Sugar
Restaurant Menu
Project Brief
This was a school project where the goal was to design a menu for the restaurant Mexican Sugar Cocina Y Cantina. We were told it didn’t have to match the branding of the current restaurant and were encouraged to develop our own look for the new menu.​​​
My Concept
Since the original restaurant had a classy, darker, more serious look, I thought it’s be interesting to do a complete 180 and create a style that was more traditional, fun and bright. After doing some research and collecting inspiration, I came up with this moodboard that shows the idea I was going for. I wanted to use exciting, saturated colours to grab customers attention, and decided on red and green to represent the Mexican flag along with a bright yellow. I also thought it would look fun and exciting to incorporate zig-zags and use sharp, angular shapes. For illustrations I thought a simple outline style might work well to modernize it a bit.
Rough Layout
The first step was to take the raw menu text and figure out the best way to arrange it. I experimented with different page sizes, font sizes and spacing to figure out the most clear and sensible layout. I discovered it made the most sense for the menu to be 4 pages; a cover, a 2 page spread, and a back page. 1 page for appetizers, soups and salads (Socialitos, and Verdes y Sopa), 1 page for the main dishes (Fajitas, Tacos, and Enchiladas) and 1 page for the Brunch section. I left the cover alone for now to be designed later.
Other information I had to include was a combo deal section, other restaurant location information, and social media addresses. Since I had to incorporate these other sections, there was a limit to how much room the menu item sections could take up. I had to be aware of this when experimenting with the page size, font and spacing sizes. I decided to place the appetizers section with the combo deal on page 1, brunch section with the other restaurant info on the page 2, and the main dishes with the social media info on page 3, as I thought this was the best order for the customer to move through the menu.
Typography
The next step was to look for typefaces that had a bouncy, sharp, hand-drawn, asymmetrical look to them for the menu section titles. I also had to find a typeface for the dish descriptions that complemented
the title but was also easy to read.
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I narrowed it down to 4 heading fonts; Postino, Totally Glyphic, Variex, and Smesh. These 4 fonts had that angular, fun look I was going for with unique letter shapes comprised of varying widths and shapes.
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The 4 fonts that I narrowed down for the main body of the text were Macho, Baileywick Gothic, Cafeteria, and New Herman. These fonts were sharp, fun, and complemented the other 4 fonts while remaining legible.
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After some feedback and more experimentation, I decided to go with either Postino or Totally Glyphic for the heading. Variex was a bit too geometric and rounded in some areas, while Smesh had extreme variety in its shapes and letterforms and was a bit much for what I was going for.
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As for the body font, I decided on either Macho or Cafeteria. The New Herman font was a bit too condensed and hard to read at smaller sizes, while Baileywick Gothic was a bit too rounded and didn’t match well, while also being hard to read as a body font.
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It was decided to use Totally Glyphic for the menu headings, with Macho for the text body. Totally Glyphic was a bit more bold and triangular looking as opposed to the more slab-serif square shapes of Postino. Macho was chosen over Cafeteria for the body as it was easier to read, being more uniform in shape and less condensed than Cafeteria.​
Colours & More Development
Now that I had a plan for the layout and fonts, I had to figure out what colours, to use. First I tried a nice pale yellow to use as a background, with a complimentary green for the text, with red as a possible third colour. After experimenting with various colour arrangements it was decided the best look was a pale yellow background with red as a secondary colour, and bright yellow and/or green as a possible third colour. I tried using brighter reds and greens but they clashed with the yellow and were hard on the eyes. I also recieved feedback that the yellow and red were the most aesthetically pleasing and vibrant combination.
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At this stage I also experimented with using a zig-zig border to seperate some of the other sections. I also started to form the Cantina Combo deal section, again using a zig-zag shape. Here is where I decided to keep the menu item name in all caps, as well as display the price with no “$” sign or to keep things simple and effective. I also began fine tuning the other locations section and added a tab leader in the Dining Room Hours part to tie the information together better and make the section more distinct and interesting.
Illustrations & Pattern
Next i had to decide on some illustrations to draw to use as a background pattern. A background pattern would add a bit of interesting busyness to the overall design. I decided to draw a taco, enchilada, and bowl of salsa as they were all menu items as well as classic Mexican foods. The illustrations were drawn in an outline style and incorporated zig-zag lines to further complement the menu style I was creating.
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Once I nailed down the illustrations shapes and outline width, I angled the objects to give them a more dynamic look, and spaced the pattern out as to not appear too crammed or too empty.
Further Development
Continuing with the zig-zag theme, I gave the section titles a squiggly red background. After trying zig-zags that were too sharp or too shallow, I found a balance that worked as a background to the text. I also found that pinching in the left and right sides of the shape seemed to point to and emphasize the text, as well as give the impression of a flag or banner. Colouring this text bright yellow added a nice pop against the red, while also complementing the yellow background.
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I also tried setting the body text in dark red/brown instead of black, as the black text seemed to stand out too much. The dark red seemed to work well against the yellow background, and also complemented the red in the other parts of the design. For the Cantina Combo section, I found a photo that worked pretty well and displayed the price on top in that bright yellow again to further grab the customers attention.
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For the back page I added a QR code that goes to Mexican Sugars website, and an instagram and facebook logo in the matching red colour to go along with the web address text. I also added a photo to balance out the text columns and to show off what would be one of their dishes.
Front Cover Title
Now that I had the menu pages mostly done, It was time to create the front cover. I wanted to make something simple that was distinct, but also matched the style of the menu so far. First I tried arranging the title crookedly around a central diamond shape. I added illustrations to the middle as well, but overall it just wasn’t working.
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Next I tried making the first letters of the first two words larger while adding a zig-zag on top of the rest of the letters, which seemed to work as well as incorporate my zig-zag theme. I tried arranging the words in a pyramid shape which also looked interesting.
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Lastly I tried displaying the title in a more linear look with a background shape that was reminiscent of the inner pages banner/flag style headings. I also tried incorporating a third green colour as a background glow to add emphasis and distinction. Putting the background glow on the letters made them muddy looking, so it was removed and used only on the zig-zag shape.
Front Cover
For the front cover I thought it would be best to use the same background pattern as the rest of the menu. I added a green glow around the border of the page to give it a little pop and make it look unique, yet cohesive with the rest of the menu. The first one I made used a central yellow stripe and showcased the illustrations in red, but this decision felt unnecessary and didn’t really add anything.
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For the next version I removed the unnecessary elements and swapped the red and yellow colours to see how that looked.
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I then had the idea to try the tilting the title and seeing If I could come up with something that worked on an angle. I tried the tilting the previous title design I made so the words Mexican and Cantina were level. Framing the title with large crooked red shapes made it look bold and exciting. However this title still wasn’t working so I tried using the flag/banner style one. I altered the banner shape to have vertical sides which added a little flair and structure among the other angled elements. I then added the green glow again for more colour variety and further contrast.
Final Tweaks
After tinkering with the details of the menu a bit more, I received some feedback on some of the elements that weren’t working.
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I felt that the price number was floating on its own and not really connected to the menu item title. To fix this, I added a tab leader that was a diamond shaped glyph (previously used in the other locations section) to tie the text together while also fitting the sharp shaped theme. These shapes made the menu pages look a little too busy and chaotic however, so I added some generous spacing between the diamond glyphs.
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I also tried indenting the menu item descriptions to create an interesting look, but it ended up looking messy and unnecessary, so I changed it back to the more aligned look.
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At this stage a green glow is added to the flag/banner shapes just like the front cover. A yellow inner glow is also added to the pages to frame the content and give off a warm feeling.
Version 1
This is the final look for the first version of the menu. Overall it was deemed to work fairly well, but there was still room to elevate the design even further.
Version 2 Sketches
To elevate the design for another version, I looked at other menus online and searched for art/design references to generate more ideas and inspiration.
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First off, I felt that the photography elements were a bit boxed in and uninspired, So drew some sketches to address this. For this version it made more sense to put the brunch page on the back and move the main dishes page next to the appetizers page. Once the appetizer page and main dishes page were together, I wanted use larger, more exciting images of the menu food to tie the pages together and really make them pop as the main centrepiece pages. The Cantina Combo content was updated and drawn to be more fun and expressive, while an enchilada and taco image concept was drawn with the same goal.
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I also removed the green glow from the section titles and replaced them with a solid green colour offset from the flag/banner shape. This was a cleaner and more prominent way of using the green colour.
Version 2 Development
Once the images were found, cut out, and arranged in a way that worked, I thought it might be interesting to add a jagged, coloured outline to them. Using a green or red outline was a bit jarring, so I tried it with yellow and it seemed to fit within the design better and blend with the yellow background glow as well.​
Version 2 Titles
I also wanted to rework the front cover and see if I could come up with an even better version. I remembered the Smesh typeface from earlier, and while it was a bit extreme in style to use at smaller sizes, I thought it might work as a large title. I altered some of the letters to overhang or underline each other, which ended up looking fun and interesting.
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I scaled the words Mexican and Sugar to be the same width, and added another flag/banner shape for the restaurants subtitle. I decided against using the Smesh font for the subtitle as the more rounded Totally Glyphic typeface that I had already been using seemed friendlier and more legible at the smaller size. I also experimented with changing the subtitle colour from yellow to pale yellow.
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Lastly I added the solid green shadow to the background of the letters to add a bit more pop and keep in line with the rest of the menus style.
Version 2 Front Cover
First I tried using the new title with the large red shapes like version 1, but I felt it was a bit much. I received feedback that the the new title was bold and interesting enough on its own without the extra red accents. Tilting the title on an angle was also too much and just didn’t work.
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After removing the red shapes and leaving the title on its own, I experimented with making the background pattern a bit larger for extra pop. The front cover had no smaller text to read like the inside pages, so it was ok for the pattern to be a bit more noticeable.
Final Version Completed
Now that version 2 was pretty much done, I received more feedback and was told the only major change might be to remove the yellow glow from the edges of the pages. It made the design look a bit claustrophobic and removing this effect might add some needed breathing room.
Overall the project was deemed a success. People found the text and sections were organized in a way that was natural to navigate. Nothing seemed hidden that should’ve been easy to find, as all the important information was emphasized. The original concept of something fun, bold, and bright came through strongly in the end through the use of colours, angular shapes, and other complementary elements. This menu was successful at creating a consistent, exciting design that customers could easily peruse and order from.
