Background Imagery

While the main focus of this brief is typography, I do of course need imagery to emphasize & back up my theme. I have created this piece of imagery to place on material I create for the Restaurant, such as menus etc. I think this works well as it nicely reflects & portrays the Roman feel, while not completely straying away from what you'd consider to be a traditional Italian restaurant. Once all my typography is in place, I'm hoping this will serve as "the plate on which my type will be served." (Round of applause please.) I haven't decided yet whether or not to use this imagery on other material such as wine labels etc, but I definitley want to maintain this look as I think it perfectly portrays my theme. I've even incorporated the Latin text that is found at the foot of Trajan's Column, just to reinforce the typography, even within an image.

Naming the Restaurant... Again!

With only a week left, I'm happy to have FINALLY settled on a theme & name for my restaurant. Using the Trajan Pro typeface & Roman Emperor Trajan himself as a theme, I've named the restaurant, simply "Trajans." Originally, I was going to call the restaurant "Trajans Column" with the sub-title of "Italian Restaurant" however, this was a bit of a mouthful, so I've cut it down to just "Trajans Italian Restaurant." I think this works better, mainly because it is more simplified, but also because naming it after the famous monument may have taken away the focus on typography & focused more heavily on history. Narrowing it down to Trajans links the two together, without emphasis on one over the other. For my menus, I have a very clear image in my head of what I want to produce. Rather than the multiple page menu I was going with while designing for "The Green Room", I've decided to go with a much simpler double-sided menu. The cover of which will focus the prominent "Trajans" logo, along with Roman imagery & the Latin wording found at the foot of Trajans Column itself, establishing the links to history as well as typography.

An Unconventional Italian Restaurant

When someone uses the term "Italian Restaurant", everyone is quick to form an image in their head of the "traditional" look of an Italian Restaurant. I really want to stray away from that with my design, since it's theme is so elegant & regal. Pictured is the sort of interior I had in mind for the restaurant, with sculptures, balconies & such. This is the look that should be really reflected in my menus & other material to perceive the restaurant theme.

A Change in Direction...

,

Ok, so once again, the direction of my restaurant theme has changed. While going through the design process, I noticed how heavily I'd used the typeface "Trajan Pro" throughout my logo & menu, so to further the connection between my restaurant & typography, I've decided to pursue this as a theme. While researching the typeface itself, I discovered something quite interesting; Trajan's Column. At the foot of this monument in Rome, Italy, is what appears to be Latin text, which is set in a typeface identical to Trajan Pro. This is my theme. The restaurant will be named after the monument, obviously serving Italian food & the identity of the restaurant will reflect the Roman look. While changing my idea at such a late stage is probably not so wise, I'm fairly confident with this concept & feel as though I can successfully pull it off.

Making changes

After showing some of my previous menu designs to my tutors, they advised me to change the way I am showcasing my food imagery, suggesting that the fade I had added previously took something away from the image, making it look almost as though it was "under water" & causing it to look less appetising as well. Many consider food photography to be somewhat of an art, so the images I choose to use should be displayed in a way that makes the food look it's best. I still want to use food imagery, but I think using a flat image makes it look a little too prominent on the page & I want it to look more subtle, so I have opted to get rid of the gradient I had used before, and instead have chosen to pursue a full page image, made ever so slightly transparent so that the image is more subtle & not as prominent. I think this works much better, but it will depend on how I place my typography on the page as to whether or not this approach is more successful.

Choosing a Colour Palette

Pantone 5835U, an example of the colours
I intend to use in my palette.

I'd like the identity of my restaurant to be consistent, with corporate colours used throughout my restaurant logo, menus etc. Firstly, I intend to produce my menu on matte stock, so will be using colours from the Pantone Solid Uncoated range. The colours I used originally captured the general look of what I wanted to pull off, so I will be going for something very similar when choosing my corporate palette. My palette will consist of very light greens, to be used throughout my menu & part of the logo, combined with a medium green to emphasise words & images. I will show these in my later development stages.

Julie Powell

Using IMDB as my source for good "Julie & Julia" quotes, I decided to do a simple Google search to see what I could find. I was able to find a site called goodreads.com, which appears to have an absolute ton of quotes from Julie Powell, the person who took inspiration from famous cook, Julia Child. It appears these quotes are from her book, rather than the film itself, which doesn't really matter I suppose, especially since the quotes found on this page are a damn sight better than the ones I found on the Internet Movie Database, particularly the one stating how Julie "Loves her husband, like a Pig loves shit." That's a cracker that one!  It will be interesting to see which of these quotes can be explored & portrayed in an effective, typographic manner.
You can view the list of these quotes, by clicking the "goodreads.com" link in the above paragraph.

"You are the Butter..."

Going back to what I said about using quotes from iconic movies/plays, or at least those that look at food, I decided to look up quotes from the film "Julie & Julia" starring Meryl Streep. Unfortunately, none of the quotes were particularly awe inspiring, but I liked the sound of the one shown above, and I think this could be one that can be widely explored typographically.

And I Quote...

If I am to pursue the use of movie/theatre quotes in my restaurant interior, I must ensure they are quotes that are either iconic in themselves, or from iconic movies or plays etc. There are a number of ways I can portray these quotes on my restaurant interior, but deciding on a final design may be difficult. This part of the project may require a little in depth research, which shouldn't be too difficult. The Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) has areas where it is possible to find iconic quotes from movies, and due to the fact I am basing this project on a restaurant, it seemed only logical that my first search would be "Breakfast at Tiffanys." Scrolling through the quotes, I found one made by Audrey Hepburn's character, Holly Golightly, stating "I've got to do something about the way I look. I mean a girl just can't go to Sing Sing with a green face." This one stood out to me particularly due to the use of the word "green" in the sentence, which may sound completely idiotic, but you can see what I was thinking when reading the quote on the web. I was thinking of perhaps looking for quotes from movies or plays that are centred around food, such as "Julie & Julia" or "Ratatouille." As I said, this will need some work & some research...

Restaurant Interiors

Above is the type of restaurant theme I would like "The Green
Room" to have, a very classy yet casual interior theme.

Now I'm on track with my menus, I can begin looking at how the interior of my restaurant is going to look. One theme I was considering using inside the restaurant, reverts back to my very first development stages of this project, where I was going to put the use of inspirational quotes into effect on the walls of my restaurant. This would have tied in with the laid back, chilled out approach I wanted my restaurant to have, where friends would casually drop by for a Panini & a drink. The use of these quotes would give customers something to look at & think about, perhaps even discuss while enjoying their meal, and the quotes would be very much focused around friendship & memories etc, something along those lines. This may still work as the restaurant interior, but may be more difficult to link to the restaurant name & the healthy theme of the restaurant itself. Another theme I have looked at & discussed, is by tying in the name "Green Room" to the interior of the restaurant by placing inspirational movie or theatre quotes on the walls. This keeps with the theme I explained previously, but also links to the name of the restaurant. This could even mean that customers are seated in a "green room" before being called onto the stage, aka the restaurant itself. Whichever direction I take this in, I am intent on keeping the wall quotes in my design, as this will also help convey the typographic element of the restaurant, as opposed to just having different typefaces on the menu.

Alternate Dessert Menu

Just for kicks, I've been playing around with different layout & imagery for my menu. Using the dessert menu as an example, I've placed the menu header in a coloured box to highlight which section of the menu you're looking at, as well as replacing the image that was originally a fruit salad with an image of Carrot Cake. I've also centre-aligned the type on the page & changed the typefaces for the menu items. I have kept the names of the dishes in the Trajan Pro typeface I used previously, and replaced the descriptions with the Savoye LET typeface. This creates contrast between the dish title & description. The use of Savoye LET also ties into the concept I had of using different typefaces to represent different foods. In this instance, Savoye LET has been used throughout the dessert menu as this is probably easier & looks more professional than picking & choosing different typefaces for each & every dish. I think this works well as the Trajan Pro type retains some consistency with the logo, while the Savoye LET typeface captures the lightness & elegance of desserts as a whole.

Menu Part 2

Here is the second part of my Green Room Menu. Once again, all the type on the page is uniformed, as this is basically just to give a feel for the layout of my menu itself. I've retained the greenery of my first part of the menu, but have used different tones to distinguish menu sections, in this case starters & mains. I've also tried to use appealing imagery, corresponding with items available on the menu, and also keeping within the healthy element of the restaurant. As said in my previous entry, I will probably give each menu item it's own unique typeface in order to set each item apart & have a typographic representative for each food item. Unfortunately, there are no steaks or heavy dishes available on the menu, so picking typefaces for dishes that are similar will be a little more difficult, but not completely impossible.

Initialising a Menu

With my overall concept in mind for the theme of my restaurant, I have quickly come up with a rough menu. This design looks at the front of the menu & the back page, focusing on desserts. The items on the menu are not necessarily the ones I will include in my final design, but what I have so far gives an impression of what to expect from my design. Just to get a rough idea of how everything would look, I have used the same typeface for the menu as I have for the logo (Trajan Pro). By the time I finalise this design, each item on the menu will probably be set in a different typeface to better represent the food itself, for example using very light typefaces for dishes such as salads & heavier ones for dessert dishes like chocolate cake etc. As I said, nothing is set in stone so far, but my main aim with these progress posts is so I know the direction I am going in.

Houston, we have a logo!

So, after a labourous couple of weeks deciding on names, themes & logos, I've finally come up with a logo & name for my restaurant that I am happy with. The use of the name "Green Room" gives audiences the basic idea of what is on offer inside the restaurant & the inclusion of a knife & fork adds to the visual aspect of the logo itself. They have been put in place because I thought the O's in Room could be used as plates... Cheesy & cliche maybe, but I am happy with it. Green colours are used throughout the logo, although the word Green itself has been set in a much darker tone to put the emphasis on the "Greenness" of the restaurant itself, which will be a healthy eating restaurant, although I intend to maintain the laid back, chilled out theme that all my initial development stages focused so heavily on. This will keep in theme with my restaurant name as Green Rooms are often seen as a place to relax, so I don't have to worry about any discrepancies between name & theme. When designing my menus & restaurant interior, the items on the menu will be set in typefaces that represent the foods themselves, as opposed to being linked by name. This will mean the chosen typeface will more than likely be a very light, elegant typeface to reflect the food served on the menu.

Typographic Representation

I've decided to go with the name "Green Room" for my restaurant, which is more of a link to food than a shared name, which I think will work better as it is more subtle. In an attempt to approach the items on the menu with a similar approach to the one I assumed VetteLetters were going with, using typefaces that look like the food, for example "Leek" is set in a very tall, green typeface. "Red Onion" is set in dark red, using a very poignant typeface to represent the sharpness in the smell & flavour of Onions etc. The visual I have created above is very rushed, but I think could be pulled off if done right. This sort of thing could also work for the typography I aim to place on the restaurant walls, perhaps as a sort of "Chef Special" written on the wall as opposed to an inspirational message. This also means I'd have to look towards a different approach to the restaurant itself, as it is starting to take a more organic, almost "healthy option" approach, which doesn't necessarily have to throw the laid back, relaxed approach out of the window, but definitley takes the direction of the restaurant down a different avenue.

Cliche...

There is of course the cliche approach of using food itself as type. This is not necessarily an approach I want to take to answer this brief, but I feel as though it shouldn't be ignored completely, due to it being so commonly used. I think there are times when this outcome can look good, I just want to try something different due to it being so cliche. If all else fails... There's always Alphabetti Spaghetti!

VetteLetters

Just via a simple Google search, I stumbled across this website, VetteLetters, which appears to link food with type. Perfect. Unfortunately, a lot of the text on the website is unreadable due to the site being based in the Netherlands, although from first impressions, it would appear the typefaces featured on the site, are more of a typographic representation of the foods as opposed to being linked via a shared name. For example, typefaces used with potatoes are large & chunky, typefaces used for spaghetti are very fine flowing. It's a visually interesting website, and it serves up some decent inspiration. As said in my previous blog entry, my restaurant does not necessarily need to share a food-typeface name, it could do what this website does & typographically represent foods with fitting typefaces.

Links to Food

Looking at the brief, and judging by talks with tutors, it would seem more logical to come up with a name & identity for my restaurant that is linked to food, typographically. This could mean anything from finding a name of a typeface that is the same as the name of a food (the first one that sprung to mind was Savoy Cabbage = Savoye LET) or could be a play on words i.e Grill Sans, as opposed to Gill Sans (Thanks Roland!) This will definitley prove more difficult than choosing a generic name & identity, but could and should, look more visually appealing. My restaurant name does not necessarily need to be directly linked to food, using the same name, it could be more subtle, for example linking "green" vegetables, to a name such as "the green room."

Development of Ideas

Here is my very first (rough) idea for a logo for my restaurant, using the "Lounge" name. Personally, I think this logo looks rather swarve & sophisticated, but I don't think it really captures the look I am going for. It is a very uptight looking logo, being all in capitals I think it looks rather in-your-face & doesn't really portray the laid back, relaxed atmosphere that I would want the restaurant itself to give off, perhaps using a logo all in lower case would work better, although I am confident that using the Lounge as the name of my restaurant will put across the message of a chilled out restaurant.

A Lesson in Typography

Here's an interesting video on Typography, that I was shown during my first lecture at Hallam University. The video is entitled "A Lesson in Typography" and basically covers the basics of type & it's various structures & forms. I found this video very interesting, as throughout the course of the video, various typefaces, layouts & type structures are shown, which could serve as potential inspiration for this project. I particularly liked how all these typefaces were formed during the video, as they began to form the sort of layouts & structures that I would like my wall type inside my restaurant to take.