My menu designs!

Here are the designs for my menu, including the front, back and two inside sample spreads. I chose to run with the idea of a horizontally folded menu for a few reasons, practically it wouldn't be knocked over as easily or get in the way and the large page size would make it easier to design the inside. And aesthetically, it enabled me to use my mural design (edited slightly) and keep the corporate feel running throughout the restaurant. I was unsure whether to use this design again for the cover, but decided that this mural essentially was my Berlin brand in a nut shell so I would be stupid to only use it once on a mural.

The way that I put my logo together also enables me to make it unique to each item by incorporating words into it such as menu, mail, wine etc, yet still making it recognisable. I chose to keep the front simple with the type as I wanted the images to be the focus, but to tie in the the logo and bring it to the forefront I used a semi-transparent white belt to direct the eye and also to give the design stability and order.

I kept the back design for the menu very simple and dark to contrast with the front, because here I want the focus to be the text not the image as the contact details are more important. I kept the design in with the theme though and in my mind I had it as the backside of the Berlin wall where there's no graffiti or pictures etc, a blank canvas.

When it came to the inside of the menu my main objective was to make it clean and easy to read. I still wanted there to be elements of my mural design, so I used segments of the design as the background which alternated on each page, but again I used a large semi-transparent white box to bring the focus to the menu contents and keep it concise and in order.

The typeface that I chose to use as my secondary typeface was 'Raleway'. The brief stated that the existing typeface that yo!sushi used was Helvetica Neue, but to "...choose a typestyle of that you feel is appropriate". Having used an obscure Germanic typeface for my logo, I wanted to contrast with a really crisp and legible sans-serif typestyle and I think this one works brilliantly.

When I researched yo!sushi's current menu one thing that stood out to me was that there was a lot happening on the pages and it was quite cluttered in places, so I made sure that each page in mine had space so that each dish could be viewed as easily as the next.

Something that I carried on from the current brand was these little mascots, as they appear on the website and designs, and they are traditional japanese symbols which is the roots of yo!sushi, so I thought it would a nice idea to have something visually tying in all the branches different around the world. 

The horizontally centrefold is quite an uncommon style for menu's, but it also means that you have to think differently when it comes to certain hierarchy and how the eye will travel across the page. For example the majority of people are right handed so will flip the page over from the right and that is where their focus will start, so for example that is why my logo is continuously in the bottom right corner. I also felt it was important to have a strong grip system throughout the menu so that the eye can move easily from one image to the next or one drinks category to the next without having to search too hard for what they want to find.

One the whole I am really happy with how my menu looks and serves it's purpose well. I may tweak minor details before I finalise it, but for now I will move my focus onto the wine & beer label designs.