Menu Design (for Non-Designers)

Menu Design Tips • Sites • Software • Resources

As a restaurant operator, there are many benefits to designing your own menu.

• 24/7 control of your primary sales tool • Quickly adjust pricing as the market dictates • Easily add new items and remove underperformers • Change item descriptions as your kitchen evolves the recipes • No waiting for changes • Customize menus for special events and holidays

But it takes planning.

• Deciding on a size, format and style • Choosing the best software or online design service • Finding appropriate graphics and typefaces • Considering food photography • Engineering for profitability • Economical printing

We’ll take the mystery out of taking your menu design in-house.

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inspiration

Before you sketch out your first menu design, do some

research Google.com

Dine Around

The internet is a fantastic reference for menu content and design, providing a window into both your local competition and restaurants all around the world!

Grab a notebook to keep track of any great menu ideas you encounter, and make a special folder on your computer for menu PDFs you download.

It might seem obvious, but one of the best ways to get inspiration for your own menu is to dine at other restaurants. Pay special attention to menu inserts, sluggers and table tents, as that sort of specialty menu isn’t usually included when you search websites.

Pinterest Millions of people use Pinterest as a bulletin board of their favorite ideas and images, and you can browse them all! In the search bar, just type Menu Design, Burger Toppings, Restaurant Interior – or whatever you’re looking for – and the site returns hundreds of visually inspiring results you can “pin” to your own board. Be warned: it’s addictive!

Books There are only a few books currently in print that cover contemporary restaurant menu design, and none that will give you the range and depth of searching Google or Pinterest. But if you need something with pages to flip, try these: • 1,000 Restaurant Bar and Cafe Graphics: From Signage to Logos and Everything in Between

by Luke Herriott

Most independent operators rightly view chains as the competition, but you must admit - they know how to make money. They have large research and development budgets for perfecting crowd-pleasing recipes and testing their mouth-watering marketing, so plan to have dinner in a mainstream chain like Applebee’s, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster or Chili’s.

You can pick up a lot of tips and ideas from one visit, gaining first-hand knowledge of their service, menu, marketing and decor, giving you insight into why they’re so successful.

Don’t be afraid to snap photos of their menu or decor with your cell phone!

Everyone does it these days, so you won’t even look suspicious. You’ll learn so much that you won’t hate yourself in the morning.

And while you’re there, request a carry out menu on your way out and begin building a collection of hard copies for your reference file.

• Menu Design: What’s for Lunch?

by Marc De Giminez

Ask Around

And if you’re a history buff, you’ll love • Menu Design in America 1850-1985

by Steven Heller

Don’t forget your own network of family, friends and regulars. They are a fantastic resource! Ask if they’ve seen any exciting menus lately, locally or out of town.

Ask nicely, and they might even pick up carry out menus to add to your collection!

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menu software

The program you choose will have a huge impact on

the look of your menu

A menu design can be as basic as handwritten text on a white page, but making your menu look great and fit the style of your operation often calls for more powerful graphic tools.

Check for Updated Programs

Many computers ship with a basic version of the Office Suite already installed, so you may own some of this software already.

It’s available in several different bundles, ranging from $100 to $400, depending on the version, or as part of the Office 365 subscription-based cloud service. The newest versions are 2013 (for Windows) and 2011 (for Macs).

Will you be using software you already own? If so, do you need to download an updated version or upgrade to a newer release? If you’re purchasing new software, make sure the computer you’ll be using meets the technical requirements listed on the software developer’s website.

Download demos from http://office.microsoft.com

Check Your Budget

•) Microsoft Outlook

Layout software can be very expensive. Research your options fully to understand the financial commitment you’ll be making.

•) Microsoft Word

Choose a Menu Master Who will be responsible for creating and maintaining your menu files? Choose someone who is comfortable with computers and has a good eye for proof-reading.

The more powerful the program, the more difficult and time-consuming it will be to learn and use well, so keep that learning curve in mind if you’ll be using new or unfamiliar software.

Download Trial Versions

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Microsoft Office Suite

E-mail client - not suitable for menus The classic word processor. Okay for bare-bones, text-only menus. As its name implies, Word has very limited graphic capabilities, and it’s not recommended for image-heavy designs.

•) Microsoft Publisher Page layout software for desktop publishing, Publisher is adept at handling graphics and is the only Office Suite program suited for designing your menu.

It’s available with the Professional Office Suite bundles and via Office 365, but it is no longer made for Macs.

All the software mentioned here is available in free, limited-time demonstration versions, allowing you to test the programs for up to a month before committing to a purchase. You can get a feel for each program and whether you’ll be comfortable relying on it to create your most important sales tool.

•) Microsoft Excel

Have Realistic Expectations

Apple Pages

No software will magically turn the user into a trained graphic designer, so don’t begin your project thinking you can easily produce the kind of photo-rich menu designs the chains use.

Apple’s word processing software integrates graphics and templates far better than Microsoft Word, but still isn’t a full-fledged page layout program.

Business spreadsheet software - not suitable for menus

•) Microsoft Powerpoint Presentation software - not suitable for menus

SoftCafe MenuPro MenuPro has been the go-to software for independent restaurant menu creation since 1994, and over the last two decades, the developers (Maryland locals!) have made it more robust and easier to use, featuring interactive templates with drag-and-drop simplicity.

MenuPro keeps you organized and makes formatting menus a breeze. It has limited graphic capabilities, similar to Microsoft Word, but it generates classic, highly legible designs. It’s available alone, or bundled with additional clip art and graphics. The stand-alone program starts at $329. The current version is MenuPro10, available only for Windows PCs. Download a demo from http://www.softcafe.com

Professional Design Software Complex and expensive with a steep learning curve, these are the industry standards for page layout software and provide the ultimate flexibility for creating any menu design. Like any tool, they’re worthless if you don’t know how to use them, so don’t invest in professional software unless you have time to learn it or have trustworthy staff who are already familiar with the programs.

•) Adobe InDesign The most popular page layout program. Available for Windows & Macs as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud.

An ongoing subscription fee is required, starting at $19.99/month.

Download a demo from http://creative.adobe.com

•) Quark XPress Quark revolutionized desktop publishing in the 1980s and is still going strong. Available for Windows & Macs. New licenses start at $849.

Download a demo from http://www.quark.com

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menu software

Self-Serve Design Services

My Menu Lab

There are several sites online that let you choose from thousands of menu templates to customize a design for your restaurant. Just enter your menu text and upload your logo or other images and their website does the rest! These services typically offer unlimited self-service menu changes for a monthly membership fee.

A creation of Sysco iCare partner Focus Marketing, My Menu Lab lets you build graphic-rich menus, sluggers, posters, table tents and offers reduced print pricing for $49 per month.

Software Training While you’re testing the free software demos, you may find you need more guidance or instruction.

Lynda.com offers the very best video training online, with an emphasis on software tutorials. Their low monthly subscription fee gives you access to over 2,000 courses on a broad range of subjects: time management, creative inspiration, social media, video editing, business philosophy and much more.

In a few hours, the Lynda.com instructors can get you up and running in nearly any software you can think of.

There is a one-week free trial, and you will need a high-speed internet connection to access their videos.

Be sure to look for these exclusive courses: • How to Use Lynda.com (free course) • Food & Drink Photography • Designing a Restaurant Menu • Food Blogs in WordPress • Publisher 2010 Essential Training • InDesign CC Essential Training • Up and Running with Photoshop Elements 11 • Font Management • Before & After: Graphic Design Techniques

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http://www.mymenulab.com

graphics Careful use of imagery can give your menu

visual flare

Searching the Internet & Copyright Law Your Google search may return hundreds of photos but they are not all legal to use on your menu.

Major and minor league sports team logos, photos of celebrities and many other images online are protected by copyright laws and licensing agreements and are not free to use for commercial purposes.

If you want to put a vendor logo on your menu, contact your rep and request a high-quality digital version.

Stock Photography & Illustration iStockphoto.com is an excellent and affordable stock imagery site. It offers extensively customizable search parameters and a deep catalog of illustrations and high-quality photos. And all the images are legal to use!

If you don’t mind compromising a little on quality and selection, you can find truly free royalty-free images at sites like unrestrictedstock.com, www.sxc.hu, pixabay.com, freedigitalphotos.net, clker.com, and stockphotosforfree.com.

For royalty-free historic photos, the Library of Congress image archive at http://www.loc.gov/pictures has an amazing collection!

Clip Art Microsoft Office and MenuPro include libraries of clip art, but try to resist the temptation. You won’t find chain restaurants using clip art on their menus because it’s rarely appropriate to use in a professional context.

Your menu should be an extension of your brand image – of your restaurant’s personality. You can search for royalty-free clip art online, or purchase collections on DVD, but only use clip art if it works to reinforce your brand.

Your Logo Before you can add a logo to your menu, you’ll need it in a high-quality digital format. If a graphic designer created your logo, they probably used Adobe Illustrator.

Be sure to ask for your logo in several digital file types.

Some vendors will only accept vector .eps files for screen printing, while others prefer PDFs or highresolution TIFF files. For placement on your menu or website, you might need a .png or .jpg version.

Collect them in a clearly labeled folder on your computer and burn backups on disc in case your hard drive crashes. You can’t afford to lose your logo!

Custom Artwork If you know a local artist or painter, custom artwork can add charm and personality to any menu design as long as it’s appropriate for the personality of your restaurant. Support the arts!

Adobe Photoshop Elements For editing and managing your photo collection, including any images you may use in your menu design, Photoshop Elements is excellent software.

The current version is Elements 11, available for both Windows and Macs. Find it on Amazon for $60 a great value for such a powerful program.

Apple iPhoto If you use a Mac, iPhoto is another great choice to store and edit your photo library, and probably came installed on your computer for free.

Adobe Illustrator As its name implies, Illustrator is vector illustration software, and should only be used by professional graphic artists. It’s great for logo design, but not meant for page layout or for designing your menu.

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custom food photography Chain menus use food photos because

photos sell food

The Dilemma

The Catch

On one hand, if you use a stock food photo on your menu that makes the food look delicious, but looks nothing like what your kitchen is serving, your customers will be rightfully upset at the bait-andswitch marketing tactics.

Investing in professional photos of your food is always smart. You’ll be able to use them for years to come in print advertising, on table tents, on your website and social media, and any other marketing applications.

On the other hand, if you use the dark and grainy photos your bar manager shot on break with their cellphone, you may alienate potential buyers with unappetizing imagery.

But dynamically incorporating photos into your actual menu design may require the skills and experience of a trained graphic designer. Chain restaurant menus don’t achieve that glamorous, mouth-watering look by dropping a few photos into Microsoft Word.

If you use food photos, they have to look even more appetizing than what your customers can imagine.

Otherwise, they’re actually hurting your sales.

The best of both worlds is to use high-quality, well-lit, professional photos taken of your actual food as it’s actually plated and served. That means hiring an experienced photographer with a good camera and lighting equipment.

The Search How do you find a good photographer? Ask around, especially to colleagues in the local restaurant industry. Visit local restaurant websites and make note of the ones with the best food photography.

Make it a point to find out who took it.

There may be a photographer working at a local newspaper or magazine who freelances on the side, or a friend of a friend with an amazing camera who’d be happy to take food photos for you in return for a free dinner. Ask to see work samples in advance. photos by Kyle Hughes, www.nextwavestudios.com

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fonts

If you find a font that looks really cool, but makes your menu hard to read

keep looking

Unless your menu is hand-written on a chalkboard, you’ll be choosing fonts, or typefaces, as part of the menu design process. The computer you’re using came with a set of fonts pre-installed, and most software programs come bundled with additional fonts. But there are literally tens of thousands of other fonts you can purchase, download, and use to express the brand personality of your restaurant.

The most important font tip for your menu: Choose fonts that are quickly and clearly legible.

A good rule of thumb is to not use more than three fonts in your menu design. The more you use, the more visually confusing the layout becomes, and the more distracting the typefaces are. The average customer spends less than two minutes looking at a menu before deciding what they want to order, so the goal of your menu design should be to help them find the item they’re looking for quickly.

It’s best to avoid red lettering for your menu text, as the human eye has trouble reading red type. If the color red is part of your brand identity, reserve it for background graphics or section heading titles, where the lettering is larger. Don’t make your item names or descriptions red.

Font Sites (Paid) You can browse a whole world of fonts for sale online (myfonts.com, fonts.com, fontshop.com, veer.com).

Prices range from completely free to hundreds of dollars for a “family” of fonts which might include thin, italic, medium, bold, black, etc.

There are font boutiques specializing in vintage fonts (fontcraft.com, waldenfont.com, letterheadfonts.com) comic fonts (comicbookfonts.com), low-cost contemporary fonts (fontbros.com, hypefortype.com) and even pay-what-you-can sites (losttype.com).

Font Sites (Free) There are totally free and legal font sites that allow you to search by style and preview a few words in the typeface of your choice. http://www.fontsquirrel.com http://www.dafont.com http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com Free fonts are often made by amateur designers, rather than experienced typographers, and as with anything, you get what you pay for. Freebies may have fewer characters and can display haphazard kerning.

Many free fonts are licensed for personal use only, with the designer requesting a few dollars if you intend to use them for commercial purposes. Be sure to read any usage restriction files included with the fonts you download.

Installing Fonts on Windows PCs Open Fonts by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Fonts.

Click File, and then click Install New Font.

If you don’t see the File menu, press ALT. In the Add Fonts dialog box, under Drives, click the drive where the font that you want to install is located.

Under Folders, double-click the folder containing the fonts that you want to add.

Under List of fonts, click the font that you want to add, and then click Install.

Installing Fonts on Macs Double clicking the downloaded font file will launch Font Book. Click Install Font.

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menu engineering Do you know the best items to feature?

And where they should be placed on your menu?

And how much to charge?

We do.

More Business Review Services

Doing Your Homework So you’re finally starting to sketch out a menu design.

• Which are your high-profit items?

In-depth menu analysis is important, but it’s not the only reason to schedule a review. We can offer solutions to your most troublesome business issues and help your restaurant run more profitably:

• Where should you feature them on the menu?

• What are the trending flavors of the season you could be capitalizing on right now?

• Have you conducted a Prime Cost Analysis to determine the optimum price for each item?

• Should it end in .00, .50, or .99?

• Which dishes are underperforming, and need to go?

• Which items are killing your kitchen productivity in terms of labor and workflow?

Control Portion Costs Are there hidden costs in your daily food preparation?

We’ll determine how efficiently your kitchen is running.

Marketing Madness Need help driving guest traffic through the door?

We’ll examine what is and isn’t working and discuss further ways to put butts in seats.

Track Purchases

• What about opportunities to use existing inventory to give new depth and variety to your menu?

Included in your business review are all of your purchases and savings for the last year – a great opportunity to chart and compare.

Schedule a Business Review and our team of Sysco experts will work with you to analyze and address all your menu concerns.

Review iCare Services

We’ll make sure you’re using the HOT SPOTS on your menu design, and review the path your customer’s eye travels when they’re browsing the menu (see diagrams below.) We’ll explain pricing strategies and show you how to increase average check size with table tents and slammers.

Single Page

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Sysco offers a wide array of value-added resources specifically for the foodservice industry.

Employee Training There are many options for assuring that you have the best staff possible – from ServSafe classes to videos – Sysco can provide the right materials for training.

And much, much more!

Tri-fold Spread

Two-Page Spread

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Menu Navigation Dynamics 10

printing Paper Size

Toner / Ink

Choose the size and format of your menu before you begin designing in any software. If you’re planning to print your menu in-house, and your office printer only prints on standard letter-sized 8.5” x 11” paper, it affects your menu design. Many small office printers cannot print on legal paper (8.5” x 14”) or tabloid paper (11” x 17”.) As of this writing, 2-sided tabloid menus are very popular. If you’re considering that format, make sure your printer can handle oversized 11” x 17” paper.

If you’re printing in-house, toner/laserjet ink costs can add up quickly and become an ongoing expense.

Keep your menu designs clean and simple to save on ink costs or find an affordable local printing company.

You could also shop for an appropriate pre-printed paper design in your menu’s size and use it as a kind of stationery, so you’re only printing text, not full-color graphics, with your ink cartridges.

Local Printing Companies

Card Stock / Paper Weight

Even if you do the bulk of your menu printing in-house, you should establish a relationship with a local printing company. You never know when an emergency print job might come up, or when your own equipment might fail, or when you’ll need some banners or postcard mailers or new business cards or any number of things you don’t have the capability to print on your own.

Your menu will last longer on a thick and sturdy stock, but many small office printers cannot feed card stock through without jamming. If you’re not using traditional plastic menu covers, consider laminating your card stock menu or table tents for support and durability.

Selection of oversized papers and card stock is typically very limited, even in office supply stores.

If you buy directly from a paper company, you’ll receive better customer service, and perhaps free samples. http://www.reichpaper.com offers an excellent line of high quality papers in a wide range of colors, finishes and sizes.

You’ll never regret having the name and number for a local printer you can rely on.

“Full Bleed” Printing

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2.

3.

4.

You’ve designed a standard letter-sized menu with a full-page background image, and you want it to fill the entire 8.5” x 11” space. This is called a “full bleed” effect, where the image “bleeds” off the edge of the page.

1. You start with letter-sized blank paper.

2. But when you print your design, you get a thin white border all the way around the page. Your printer needs that little bit of margin for the rollers to grab the paper and pull it through the machine.

3. You still want the “full bleed” effect – it looks much more professional than the ugly white border. So your graphic files need to be prepared with “bleed” - extra image that extends about an eighth of an inch beyond the trim size and printed on oversized paper. Crop marks are added to indicate where the paper should be cut.

4. The finished page, cut from the oversized paper, gives you an 8.5” x 11” sheet with image extending to the edge.

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other design resources Your menu is your primary selling tool, and getting it right is critical to your future success. If designing it on your own is too much hassle and you’d rather be managing your staff, or if you just don’t want the extra headache, you can always call in the experts!

Focus Marketing Focus has been a trusted Sysco iCare partner for years, and works with restaurateurs across the country creating thousands of menus.

They understand your hectic schedule and know every day counts when it comes to getting your menu designed, printed and onto your tables.

They also handle specialty menus, sluggers, inserts, table tents, etc., all customized with your logo, colors and other specifications.

Visit http://www.menufocus.com

menu jackets and more After you’ve spent so much time and energy perfecting your menu design, show it off in style!

Covers protect your menu from spills, smudges and finger prints, adding months of use to your printing investment. They can be extensively customized and are available in many colors and textures, embossed with your logo, backlit, hand-crafted out of metal or wood, etc.

These vendors also stock menu papers, inserts, table tent holders, and whatever else you need to make your menu look great!

Menu Solutions http://www.menucovers.biz

The Menu Shoppe http://www.menushoppe.com

Risch, Inc. http://www.hrisch.com

building your restaurant’s digital identity

Ask your Sysco Salesperson for these Informative Flyers

TAKING BETTER PHOTOS

M x It Up Fresh Ideas for Your Menu

Taking Better Photos

MENU DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Menu Design Principles Mix It Up Vol. 3 Easy Steps to More Appetizing Shots

33239 Costen Road Pocomoke, MD 21851 410-677-5600 www.syscoeasternmd.com

Coming Soon!

For Facebook, Instagram, E-mail Blasts and more ISSUE # 3