Creating a menu is an integral part of the marketing of any restaurant. Cafes, fast food restaurants, delivery services, and high-class restaurants can get good results by designing a well-thought-out and appealing menu for their customers.
Many people believe that making a trendy menu without the help of a professional designer is impossible. We have chosen 7 secrets, thanks to which you will be able to create a great design yourself, using an online menu maker.
1. Use the principles of menu engineering
Menu engineering is a science about the competent creation of a restaurant or café menu. That is why it is impossible to create an effective design without knowledge of basic principles. Learn a variety of techniques of a menu design, which will make your customers order more and come back to your place again and again.
2. Remember The Rule of Golden Seven
Trying to please all their guests, restaurant owners often add to the menu several cuisines and more than 200 items at once. In this case, you risk shocking your visitors with diversity. According to The Rule of Golden Seven, a customer can only perceive seven items from one category (for example, seven dishes in the category “Salads”).
3. Highlight dishes with frames
Customers love when the menu is divided into logical parts and is easy to read. Frames in the layout is a great way to arrange the dishes and make the design interesting. Moreover, their proper use can help increase sales of certain dishes. Single out highest margin categories or special offers with a frame, and your visitors will definitely pay attention to them.
4. Consider the importance of typography
When choosing a font for the menu, it is important to consider not only its readability but also other characteristics. Font can also affect the dish perception. For example, italics is associated with high quality, while a rounded font with a sweet taste.
A competent combination of fonts also plays an important role in menu design. You can read more about this in the article about the principles of fonts combination.
5. Use The Rule of 5C in a dessert menu
First of all, we recommend making a separate menu for desserts. In this case, customers will understand that your restaurant is an expert and offers a large choice of sweets. Secondly, when choosing desserts for your menu, use The Rule of 5C: Citrus, Coffee, Caramel, Chocolate, and Cheesecake. These are the very classic types of desserts to start with.
6. Prefer graphics to photos
As we discussed in the article about the trends in a menu design, interesting and quality graphics is now on the peak of its popularity. Although there is an opinion, that photographs of dishes can significantly boost sales, we recommend investing your budget in good illustrations. Thus, the menu of your restaurant or café will definitely look stylish.
7. Add some branded items
The easiest and the most effective way to make your menu trendy is to add some branded items of the restaurant to it. Do not forget about restaurant logo, use font and color combinations, which are associated with your place. Moreover, this technique will help make your brand recognizable and remembered by your visitors.
If you want to create a menu design all by yourself, you need to be aware of many details. Using all these simple tips together will help to create an impressive menu, which will be a great representation of your restaurant style.
