Menu Cover
Menu Inside
Table Tent
Menu Cover
Desktop Publishing
PASTA AMORE
DATE
LENGTH
CLIENT
December 2021
8 weeks
Pasta Amore
ROLES
Researcher
Designer
Illustrator
Presenter
Writer
Branding
Brief
Pasta Amore is opening a restaurant and is looking to develop a variety of materials in order to advertise. Create a table tent, menu design, and brochure, utilizing elements and specifications in the Brand Style Guide provided.
My proposal: Take elements from one design piece to the next to create cohesiveness and communicate the intended message of their respective audiences.
Methodology: Double Diamond Model
01. Discover
02. Define
Before I began designing, I made sure to understand the client's vision and goals provided in the Brand Style Guide.
My goal was to ensure that my designs reflected the client's goal to remain welcoming, traditional, and family-oriented,
03. Develop
Table Tent
Adobe InDesign
To stay consistent with the brand guide, I used the Klinic Slab and Goudy Old Style font families. The brand’s identity is traditional with a modern twist. To capture this, I used an image of a traditional pasta dish as the main focal point.
Next, I pulled Marinara Red, Leafy Green, and Espresso from the branding guide to be accent colors. Because the client wants to present a more modern family style, I did not want to overuse these traditional Italian colors. Instead, I used Cannoli as the main background color. I then created a tagline for the client using text from the client’s vision statement- “A modern twist on a timeless classic” and overlayed it with red color blocking to emphasize it. I used a mixture of both Klinic Slab and Goudy Old Style in 12pt font to express the blend of modern and traditional.
Menu
Adobe InDesign
For the menu design, I reapplied the design from the table tent, while resizing some of the elements to improve the layout.
To create my menu items, I created tables 3 rows and two columns. To style the tables, I merged the top cells into a single row and increased the capitalized heading with Klinic Slab 30pt. The subheading and prices were kept on the same row and styled with Klinic Slab 30pt bold. I did this to create consistency in styling with headings and subheadings. The remaining text for the menu items was written in a combined cell with Goudy Old Style 18pt bold.
To break up the text of menu items, I used images of the menu items as dividers. To make the images fit, I had to format and crop them. I then labeled each image with the corresponding menu item name either white or black depending on the content within the images. If the image was darker, I used white. If the image was very light, then I used black for the text. I did this to increase readability. Looking back, I could have increased the text size on these labels. I also included a green and red border using the Leady Green and Marinara Red colors from the client’s branding guide. My goal was to begin to create a consistent visual identity for the brand.
Tri-Fold Brochure
Adobe InDesign
As in the design for the menu, I also used the logo as the heading. I used an unaltered color version from the client’s branding guide. To show the client's vision of being family-oriented, I added the promotion tagline “Kids eat free every Sunday” using a combination of with Klinic Slab bold and book that I increased from 16pt to 27pt to increase visibility and balance out the design for that section of the trifold.
I included the client’s vision statement in this section as well to emphasize their family-oriented traditional stance. I used an unaltered version of the color logo again to lead the informational section of the brochure. This side of the brochure has Leafy Green borders to connect it to the Leafy Green accent border used on both the table tent and menu designs.
I was able to reuse the same images from the menu design after resizing them. The relationship between the typography sizes changed as well. I restyled the headings to Klinic Slab 14pt, the subheadings to Klinic Slab 12pt, and the body text to Goudy Old Style bold 10pt. Because the front of the brochure was designed to have the Leafy Green accent border, I wanted to tie the Mariana Red back in, so the borders on this side of the brochure are all Marina Red.
04. Deliver
Rationale
This brand design was for Pasta Amore. I appreciate their desire to provide a traditional family dining experience. My client’s target audience includes families and couples. This is relevant to the brand because these are the potential customers the brand is identifying and trying to get business from. This means that the products created for the brand must attract families.
Competitors for the brand include larger Italian restaurant brands such as The Old Spaghetti Factory, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, and Olive Garden. The client’s design will need to stand out from its competitors. Another challenge will be making sure the designs are not stale and outdated by being “too traditional” and not keeping in mind the client's desire to put a “modern twist on timeless classics” as is mentioned in the client’s Visvivion statement.