Week 1 - Menu Design

First week of Challenge 52 (see this post for an explanation of the challenge) and I thought I'd write about one of my recent graphic design jobs, I just got delivery of the printed up design so perfect timing!

The brief for this job was to design a drinks menu for a bar that could sit out on their tables. The bar already has quite a strong corporate identity (see their website) so I had to make sure the menu would fit with their other promotional material and signage.

The manager's initial idea was to just have a simple folded leaflet style menu as the budget wasn't there for the printing costs for a booklet. However when they told me the budget they did have I thought there might be some room to get a bit creative and hopefully get them something a bit more functional than a basic leaflet. I thought by basing the design around one A3 sheet I could maybe make them a booklet style menu while keeping the costs to a minimum.


The drinks could be split into five categories so with the front page making six I had the idea to make a booklet with coloured, staggered pages so customers could quickly find what they wanted. So much measuring and cutting up of paper later I worked out a design I thought would work quite well to clearly show all the information required. The staggered page design also meant I could make the best use of space i.e. larger categories could be near the back so they had more page space and the smaller ones at the front.

The fact the pages are colour coded and all different sizes means the A3 flat sheet looks a bit confused but when it's trimmed, folded and assembled it all fits together. The front and back of the sheet is shown below:

The good thing is too that the different colours mean it's clear where to fold the pages so assembly is quick. The mock up of the final booklet showing the page layouts is below:

Finally, some pictures of the actual menus, before and after assembly. I'm happy with the way they turned out and they worked out way cheaper than a normal 12 page booklet would have been, in fact they were only marginally more expensive than the original idea for an A4 folded version would have been. They were printed on 200gsm stock and matt laminated so they're pretty sturdy and durable.

 

If anyone would like to join in with Challenge 52 just comment below and I'll work out a way to create a blog link-up etc. Nanuk jewellery is taking part and you can see her Week 1 post here.

Folksy Friday finds...

Letterpress printing is one of those things that one day I'd love the chance to do. Traditionally it's where a negative is made of the image you want to print (like a block or movable type-the loose metal letters you used to find in newspaper printers), the negative is inked and then pressed into the paper to produce a print. Because of the pressing motion letterpress printing is usually indented to various degrees, which you can see in some of the examples below. This is probably what I like so much about it, it has a tactile quality, and also due to the inking and press process no two can be produced exactly the same - mass production but not.

Letterpress printing can be used for everything that more modern printing is used for and is commonly used for high quality wedding invites. Now more modern processes have been devised it isn't as common as it once was as it's more labour intensive and more reliant on non-automated processes. There are some lovely printshops out there doing amazing work - but more about them in a future post! Right now here's some letterpress finds from the UK handmade marketplace Folksy to kick off my "Folksy Fridays".






From left to right the people featured above are AarkvarkOnSea, Biplane Press & Design, Lapwing Printworks, The Home Press and Print for The Love of Wood. Click on the pictures to visit the items or on the names to visit the shops.