Saturday, May 14, 2016

Professional Menu Final

Well, my last day of Menu Writing for the spring semester was yesterday. It was an interesting class, and I liked it (and the teacher), but to be honest, I'm glad the semester is over. I need a break from school.

For my Menu Writing final, we had to make a professional menu, and let me tell you, it was a LOT of work!!

Figuring out what I wanted on my menu, how much to price them for, the design (color, how many pages, the type of cover, etc.).....

It was frustrating, to say the least.

It took me forever to figure out the design, and that frustrated me even more, when I printed the menu out.

I had a background on each of the pages, and it didn't print for some reason. It was just the menu items, the name, the picture I put on the back page, and the border. The only thing that was in color was the back page picture.

And I was NOT happy :(

I was finally able to get it properly printed out, the next day at the library. I decided to use colored cardstock, instead of white.

THEN....

While in class last week, while my teacher was talking with each person in the class about their menus and hearing what they were doing for theirs (they weren't talking quietly, so it was kind of hard not to listen to them), I was having second thoughts about how my menu looked.

My original idea was to use paper grocery bags, and glue/tape the menu (printed on cardstock) onto each side, and bind it together with twine. It actually looks kind of cool, even if it doesn't have many pictures.

I went back on my computer class, and did some tweaking to what I already did.

Here's what I had done before editing it:

The back of the menu.

Inside

Inside

Inside

The front
 
 
Pretty simple, plain. Only a couple pictures. Not great, but not bad, either.
 
My teacher suggested I put pictures along with the menu items, to make it more appealing.
 
So, that's what I did.
 
I ran out of paper bags the size I needed, so I used all cardstock for my updated menu. I also used different colors for it as well.
 
My updated Menu:
 
The back

Inside

Inside

Inside


The front
 
Looks a lot better, but still isn't the greatest. But, I am happy with it in general.
 
The only thing I didn't like was having to get up in front of the class, and present my menu to them. I am a shy person, so talking in front of a group of people is not exactly one of my favorite things to do. I'm just glad it's over.
 
My teacher had actually said that she liked my original idea of using the paper grocery bags, and asked why I changed it to cardstock, and I told her I ran out of the bags.
 
I don't know how well I did on it, and in the class overall, but I will find out within the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I passed!!