2018 Menu Design Trends to Keep an Eye On

Always keeping your restaurant on track of the latest trends in the industry can be vital for your business’s success. And, there are lots of trends in the dining industry to keep an eye on, starting from interior design trends for keeping the place fresh and cool; to food trends for satisfying the diner’s eating desires; all the way to UI/UX trends for that perfect web/app design of yours. In between this list, keeping up with the latest menu design trends is also very important.

A menu doesn’t merely serve the purpose of listing dishes. It is more like a design portfolio, having a very crucial role in your restaurant’s marketing. Just like they say, “the first bite is with the eye.” So, before your customers have a bite or a drink at your place, your menu’s design is your chance to make the first impression. In the end, first impressions matter, don’t they?

Now, have a look at these top 3 menu design trends for 2018, making sure your menu is upgraded to the next level ready to make those important first-time impressions. Let’s start!

1. Crafted By Hand

Crafted by hand menus are going to be here for 2018! That’s right! The new trend in designing a restaurant menu is its creation with an extra special touch.

Be it a handwritten menu on a card or a clipboard, or an encrypted wood board menu standing still in the middle of the restaurant; the fact that it is handmade is what counts. And, your creativity! It counts especially! Handcrafted menus give diners a more “authentic” and “welcoming feel” , which can be a powerful influencer to positive customer experiences.

Just imagine the impression the diners will get from having a look at your beautifully and creatively crafted menu that you cared enough about to take the time and effort for making it by hand. Trust us, your customers will love to feel special like that! Awe…

2. Going Green

Going green with menu design is a great idea in 2018. Even, not only in 2018! Green agenda is a trend that has come from 2010 and will pass through 2018 to the future.

Thanks to the innovative green printing techniques of nowadays, the waste and carbon footprints produced by businesses have notably decreased.

And, as a responsible restaurant owner who cares about it’s business’s impact on the environment and wants to have its own contribution to creating a greener planet, you should consider printing green menus. It can be a major public image booster for your business too!

The logical first step for going green with your restaurant menu is to print it on eco-friendly recycled paper. You can even use soy inks to print your menus. Sounds weird? Not necessarily! As a matter of fact, soy inks release very few VOCs (volatile organic compounds) into the environment when drying. And, they look super cool!

Then, you can make sure to recycle your menus properly every time when printing out a new one. Simple!

3. Keeping It Simple

A clattered menu design is a major appetite killer! And, for this year, keeping it all simple is a trend to pay very close attention when (re)designing your restaurants’ menu.

When people are hungry, they want to make a quick and easy choice, getting ready to feed their food starve as soon as possible. If you give them too many options clumped together in your menu design, their head will spin from such a visual clatter. Guess what? It will cause them real frustration!

On the contrary, if you offer too few dishes on your menu, people are most likely to feel miffed. It will be a disappointment for them; opening your menu and seeing very few offers with an empty design.

That’s why you should try finding the golden mean when deciding on how many dishes to offer and how to put those dishes into a nice and simple design for your menu. You know, not to overburden your menu design or, even worse, fill it with empty space!

In fact, customers prefer 7 options for entrees, 10 for mains, and seven for dessert, according to a recent study by Britain’s Bournemouth University. So you have that! Now, go ahead and (re)design your menu accordingly.