I don’t remember how I got started looking for information about menu design. I do not currently have a client in the hospitality industry, although I have designed a few menus in my career as a graphic designer. What got me hooked on the subject was the fact that, as with many design specializations, menu design has become quite complex and multifaceted. Complex to the extent, for example, that the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University conducts studies such as $ or Dollars: Effects of Menu-price Formats on Restaurant Checks.
Design and layout of menus now falls under the umbrella of “menu engineering” along with the disciplines of (as defined on Wikipedia): psychology (perception, attention, emotion/affect), managerial accounting (contribution margin and unit cost analysis), marketing and strategy (pricing, promotion).
As an introduction to the subject, I’ll share some of my finds. I cannot testify to the veracity of each source, I have not even read them all word for word, but I thought you might be interested or at least curious.
Haha… let’s start with how NOT to design a menu…
For design strategy…
The Guide to Menu Design from FSR (Full-Service Restaurants) magazine…
Menu Design Errors from FSR (Full-Service Restaurants) magazine…
The Impact of Menu Design from Restaurant Business magazine…
The Psychology of Menu Design from Restaurant Resource Group…
For design inspiration…
The Buttolph American Menu Collection at the New York Public Library…
The Culinary Institute of America Menu Collection…
Photo by Edgar Castrejon on Unsplash.
Updated in JUNE 2018 / Chuck Green is the principal of Logic Arts, a design and marketing firm, a contributor to numerous magazines and websites, and the author of books published by Random House, Peachpit Press, and Rockport Publishers. Contact.
You may be horrified to know that the steak image from the “how NOT to” menu is still used by that restaurant. It’s on a huge cabinet sign out front, and it makes me ill every time I see it.
Good googa-mooga Celeste, you’re right! There it is, compliments of Google Maps Street View–swing around to the sign to the right of the restaurant and look at the uppermost panel. Gigant-o-steak!
http://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF8&q=%22old+country+kitchen%22+portland&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&cid=0,0,15187751376339847707&ei=KLT7SfjOK43GM7S1rb0E&ll=45.519004,-122.554851&spn=0,359.997184&z=19&layer=c&cbll=45.519029,-122.555006&panoid=HfIy6jXBepHnUvcqcsK8Dg&cbp=12,27.411409395760426,,0,-0.057142857142856024
Oh man, now I feel bad.
This ‘menu engineering’ sounds very clever, but unless your customers are stupid, they will see through it, recognize you are trying to manipulate them, and never come back. Would you patronize a restaurant where you knew the owner’s aim was to squeeze as much money out of you as he can?
You pose the question, “Would you patronize a restaurant where you knew the owner’s aim was to squeeze as much money out of you as he can?”
But your question is loaded to color the issue. I could counter by asking, “Would you patronize a restaurant where you knew the owner’s aim was to steer you in the direction of the meals that they were best at producing?”
Whole different reasoning. Just as plausible I think.
I think that steak menu is great!
Although you obviously picked that ugly steak example looking at the other menus on the site, I rather enjoyed the retro look of some of them (Big Tree Inn, for example), the typefaces used and of course the prices … pass the ketchup!
Menu engineering, it’s no different than retail engineering. Putting items in front on customers to make a sell. Grocery stores do the same thing with the way they display products. It’s marketing.