Creating Captivating Menu Designs

Your posted, printed, and digital menus are so much more than a product and price list—they’re an opportunity to visually engage and connect. Strategic design techniques guide the customer journey and have the potential to boost your sales. Let’s dive into the core concepts behind captivating menu designs.

What are the 6 common types of menus?

There are 5 age-old types of menus. This includes static, a la carte, du jour menus, cycle menus, and fixed menus. There’s also a modern range of menu options. As a juice bar or cafe, you’ll likely need a mix of the options below:

• Static: Static menus are the core foods and juices that you serve year-round. Most juice bars have a static menu with seasonal specials. This includes menus that hang on the wall and printed menus. Print enough to stay stocked, but not too many that you take a big financial loss when you add new juices.
• A la carte: Unlike a prix-fixe menu where the courses are outlined, a la carte means customers can order what they want, as they want it. A la carte menus often have a mix of static options and rotating options. An a la carte café menu might be separated by juices, coffee, tea, soups, sandwiches, salads, and pastries.
  Customers eager to explore a visually appealing menu at a restaurant.
• Seasonal menus: A seasonal menu often features fruits and veggies you only offer when they’re in season (and less expensive) or innovative options that you only offer short term.

Seasonal juices are an excellent way to test new combinations. If they’re popular and profitable, you can add them to your core menu.

• Time of the day menu: If your café or juice bar menu rotates for breakfast, lunch, and dinner you might have separate menus. Or maybe a breakfast and lunch menu and a dinner menu.
• Takeout: When designing your in-store menu layout, be sure to create an aligned takeout menu. From postcard size to a one-page sheet or a trifold menu. Your takeout menu may not be as visually appealing as your in-restaurant menu, but it must be organized and easy to read. For maximum usability, consider business cards with QR codes that route to your online menu.
• Digital menu board: Digital menus are a vibrant addition to your juice bar. They easily showcase your seasonal items and best sellers. With the ability to post and rotate photos and videos, they’re a thirst-quenching and visually engaging customer experience. Not to mention, upgrading to digital can increase your sales by up to 10%. Don’t forget to have an online menu designed to post to your website and social media. Your online menu can look exactly like your in-store static menu but it must be formatted for digital screens. Post both a static online menu and a downloadable PDF of your takeout menu.

What are the guidelines for menu design?

Whether you’re primarily dine-in or fast casual, the same concepts apply when considering how to design your menu. Let’s presume that you’ve already named your juice and menu items—and have written descriptions that are a short but descriptive combination of fun, function, and flavor. An enticing name and description can increase sales by 27%!

Let’s dive into the basic elements of food and beverage menu design:

Color Choices

Your design must encapsulate the look and feel of your brand, but this doesn’t always mean incorporating your brand colors. For example, if your logo or branding features fluorescent orange, green, and yellow you may want to incorporate them sparingly—if at all. Visual aesthetics must be top of mind, and colors that make a perfect logo may not be ideal for reading. Save the bold color and artistry for the cover or the front of your tri-fold takeout menu.
Menus are typically neutral with contrasting font:

• A white background with black font.
• A black background with white font.
• A cream background with black font.

Typography and Font Size

Font size can vary greatly depending on the typography. Use bold font to separate menu items and select typefaces that aren’t overly artistic.

To ensure easy reading, the font must be large enough that most customers can easily read the text while the menu is flat on the table. This typically means using a font size between 20 and 30. For menu boards, the text should be much larger—with readability from no less than 15 feet away.

Pricing Strategy

• Many modern menus leave out the “$” as it’s both implied and takes up space, but you may prefer adding “$” before all your prices.
• Lining up prices isn’t necessary unless it works with the design. When you don’t line up your prices, customers can’t scan to compare prices. However, beverage-only menus often have a similar price point.
• Use full dollar prices ($5) or prices that end in a .95 vs. a .99 as .99 is subconsciously associated with discount pricing.

Adding high-definition images to your menu can increase sales of each featured item by up to 30%. Be strategic, placing images of best sellers or dishes you want to promote. If you have a digital menu board, you can rotate your images, motion graphics, and videos by the time of the day. For example, citrus juices in the morning and green juices in the afternoon.

How do you structure a food menu?

Artistry is welcomed with decorative graphics and high-definition images of your menu items. However, you need to decide on a menu design template. The tips below will help you determine how to structure your menu.

Categorize

Categories might include breakfast, lunch, dinner, juices, coffee, tea, soups, sandwiches, salads, and pastries. If you only serve juice and snacks, your signature juice categories might include creative names for:

• Straight juices: Single fruit or veggie juices, like orange or carrot.
• Fruit juices: Refreshing combinations of fruits designed for flavor.
• Green juices: Veggie juices that contain zero fruit or 20% or less fruit.
• Functional juices: Juice for specific functions such as immunity or cleansing.
• Food items: Nuts, snacks, baked goods, sandwiches, and other food items.

Prioritize white space

More isn’t better. Leave ample white space in your menu design so that it’s easy to read. To ensure readability, space your menu items out, separating each category with any combination of bold, larger, centered, or underlined font.

The Golden Triangle

The Golden Triangle leverages psychology to strategically lay out your menu options. The concept is that most customers don’t read your menu from top to bottom, left to right. Instead, their gaze begins in the middle of the page, moves to the top right, and then moves to the top left. So, be strategic in what you place in this visual triangle.

Still not sure how to design your menu?

If you still aren’t sure where to begin, consider reaching out to a professional. Here are some top resources to consider:

• 99designs – A platform to find freelance designers specializing in menu design.
• Upwork – Hire experienced menu designers from around the world.
• Canva Menu Maker – A user-friendly tool to create beautiful menus online.

For further guidance, check out these useful articles on menu design: 

• Menu Design Tips and Tricks
• Psychology of Menu Design

By utilizing these resources and tips, you can create a captivating menu that enhances the customer experience and boosts your sales.