Recently updated on December 5th, 2017 at 06:22 pm
Thinking of starting a new restaurant or rebranding your current one? One of the most critical points to consider is the overhaul of your restaurant menu design. The menu is arguably the most important part of your brand package because it will constantly be seen and used by your customers. Because the menu is a reflection of your restaurant, you have to be meticulous in your choices of images, fonts, and layout.
Your menu can be a powerful way to project a specific image on your restaurant such as being “classy” or “fun.” The design should be consistent with the rest of your branding and kept in the proper style. You may find it surprising how big of an influence your menus can have on your customers’ overall restaurant experience.
Menu Designs Should be Functional and Beautiful
When you create a menu, you should keep your customers closely in mind. It needs to be functional and should be easy to read and understand while still relevant to your target market.
For example, if you have many older customers, a menu design with very small print could make it difficult for them to order if they have poor eyesight. If you have millennial customers, your design should be modern with an efficient use of space. In local restaurants, you may opt to use local terms or references to relate to local customers.
These are just a few of the many things to consider when creating menu designs, so in the meantime check out these cool restaurant menu designs below for some inspiration.
Restaurant Menu Design Inspiration
UK designer Tobias Hall shows us the strength of typography in his multi-layered menu design – including hand-drawn fonts that look amazing!
Italian designer, Antonio D’Amore has created a whole restaurant brand. The brown and dirty white evokes a wine barrel and the use of blue highlights the marine location of this restaurant.
Another example of an exquisite restaurant menu and branding for this Spanish burger joint. Created along with other restaurant paraphernalia, the designers created a concise and uniformed look. The QR code is also a nice touch.
This exquisite brand and identity work was created for a whiskey bar and restaurant by Oat Design Studio in Somerville, Massachusetts. The design company has created a wonderful “old world Americana” feel without resorting to ten gallon hats and swinging bar doors!
These exquisite menus were created by Blürb Studio in Poland for The Olive Tree Restaurant in Krakow. The main menu they created looks more like a beautiful photography book – filled with artistic shots and sublime food portraits. The simple charcoal and white palette allows the colorful photos to “pop,” and the sophisticated font treatments create a clean and uncluttered look that is not only easy to follow but also aesthetically pleasing.
This conceptual menu by designer Elle Benway is such a fun and original design. Not only is it beautifully illustrated and typeset but it’s also wonderfully playful and interactive. I also love the pull down tabs that reveal menu info, the spinning “wheel of fate”, and the fabulous array of characters that she has created within it.
There’s something that feels so personal and direct about the way that San Francisco designer, Sara Nicely has designed this menu and packaging. The handwritten menus and menu-themed packaging that list all the ingredient is such a graphically pleasing type treatment.
BoyBurnsBarn design studio in Chicago has created “wood cabin chic” design for State and Lake. I love how their table menus have been branded with their logo and how their overall design style has taken old-fashioned deer imagery and made it so sophisticated and modern. Truly artistic.
Modik Estudio in Spain has created a playful but incredibly artistic design. Throughout the entire restaurant branding they’ve created for Sushi Bar, they have presented a highly whimsical design approach that elevates their menus and branding to another level! The menu concept is such a strong one; unfold it and it looks like a Japanese fan.
I love the quality of branding design by Panda Design Studio and Illustrator, Andrew Cachia. The use of multiple typefaces is gutsy but it gives a unique flavor to each menu item.
Steve Simpson created these beautiful table-standing menus for a gastro bar in Dublin. The fun and lively designs that he’s created for the bar, walls, fittings, and menus, are so immediate and “cool”. It just looks like such a “happening place” where people want to hang out.
This is really beautiful work by Nadine Faour for JWT Bahrain. The beautiful illustrative style is almost “storybook” in its graphical appeal and leads the viewer on a wonderful culinary journey. The overall branding of this Bahrain sushi restaurant is so precise and synergized, starting with their menus and finishing with their custom take-out packaging.
I’m pretty certain that a pub menu has never looked so good. This is a complicated menu with many price-points and products that has been laid out in a really easy-to-follow and original way by Colombian designer, Juan Urrego. By using price dots and other graphical touches, he presented a atypical menu that looks exciting and appealing.
This distressed and rustic look aligns with the history of the location of this former warehouse in Singapore. It immediately evokes European design and style for this gastropub.
These menus for Sissy’s Southern Kitchen are beautifully designed and illustrated in a colorful retro style – fun, wacky, and a quick favorite with squirrels and chickens.
Sometimes you just have to go simple and minimalist, as shown by the designer of this menu for Chez Lionel in Canada. This “hands-on” stamping style design gives a wonderfully hand-crafted feel.
This menu for The Catch in Singapore looks like a fascinating cookery magazine. The playful magazine-style cover with catchy headlines sets the tone for each deliciously photographed spread inside.
These are individually hand-painted and bound menus for the Picasso Cafe in Oklahoma, playing with their namesake Pablo Picasso. “Great food is an art” indeed.
I hope that these restaurant menu designs will inspire you to create a great menu design for your restaurant. If you’re done with the design process, NextDayFlyers will bring your design to life. We offer menu printing in different sizes and folds. Check out our menu printing page for more information.
Do you want more restaurant menu designs? Would you like to share your own menu design? Share it with us in the comment box below!
This exquisite brand and identity work was created for a whiskey bar and restaurant by Oat Design Studio in Somerville, Massachusetts. The design company has created a wonderful “old world Americana” feel without resorting to ten gallon hats and swinging bar doors!
Sonic, Red Robin – these are tasty restaurant menu designs.