I saw the coolest menu design at a diner in Cleveland yesterday

I was grabbing a late lunch at this old school spot called Eddie's Grill, and I couldn't stop looking at their menu. It was a single, heavy cardstock sheet, but the layout was so clean and the type was this perfect retro font (I think it was Futura, but bold). They used just two colors, black and a bright orange, and it made everything pop without looking messy. Has anyone else found design inspiration in unexpected places like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

seth_nguyen3mo ago

Man, that's everywhere now, good design is just part of the air we breathe.

troy_butler73mo ago

That idea about good design being in the air we breathe is interesting, @seth_nguyen. Does it feel like that's made things better overall, or has it just raised the bar so high that average stuff sticks out more now? I'm curious if you see a downside to it becoming so common.

faith_smith1mo ago

Right @troy_butler7, it's basically the design version of everyone suddenly being a food critic because they watched one season of a cooking show. The bar's definitely moved, but now we've got people calling a slightly crooked sign "aggressively bad design" like it personally offended their grandma. Honestly, the downside is that perfectly fine, functional stuff looks like a hot mess next to the sleek stuff, and everyone suddenly thinks they're a design expert overnight. Kinda makes you miss the days when a toaster that just toasted was considered a win.