Menu Development

After looking at my restaurant developments, I've decided I need to try out a different approach, and something that links better to the concept of the restaurant. It's about healthy food, that is boxed, and so I'm thinking more about how it would presented in the actual restaurant. 

I had the idea that the bento would be split up into 3 different categories, and that you would place different choices into 3 different boxes. The ratio would be a half of a rice dish, and then a quarter of meat/fish or vegetarian products, and then a choice of vegetables. 

With this is mind, I then thought about how to communicate this visually, and I really though that displaying the menu in a box format would work well, with colours indicating at the content of each compartment. 

I drew up the box and then started experimenting with text, but like graphic products I've seen before, league gothic worked really well at conveying the information in a stylish but simple way. 

First I looked at white background with the text as the colour, but everything was looking too empty, and I was worried about readability with the lighter text, and what stock you would use. 

I think the coloured background works better, and it also communicates the idea of the colour representing the food.

I also tried it in black, but I think this looks too harsh, and isn't really very readable or nice to look at.

I think that these colour options have worked the best, where the light colours communicate the food, with the text in dark colour - it looks more interesting visually, as well as being easy to read. I'm also quite happy with my use of text, and the layout of it, which I think shows off the concept of the boxed food well. 

This is the inside of the menu, which will open up to an A4 size. 

Placing it into the actual menu, it's difficult to think of what I need to display in terms of information, aside from the food, I'm also unsure about the use of white and whether maybe it should be a little bit bolder.

Working in black, it has helped to bring all the elements together, and the use of the slogan as opposed to the actual logo I think keeps everything cohesive, but also means that it hasn't repeated itself in terms of design. I've added information about the concept of Bento, and I have tried to incorporate a form of info graphic by using the price boxes that coordinate with the actual layout at the bottom of the menu. 

In terms of stock, it would be really nice for this to print onto a thick matt card, but depending on what I can get hold of this might not be a possibility.