Announcement
Best of 2012
UnderConsideration
Get your visual glands salivating. It’s time to recap the best menus shown on Art of the Menu this year. We will be back with our regular programming on January 7, 2013. No other posts will be published until then.
Posted
By Armin on 12.24.2012
No. 12
Design
Thoughts
We see a lot of crazy type combos on AotM but this casual script, condensed sans, and sculptured logo make for a great plate.
No. 11
Design
Thoughts
The menu items look dense and a success in itself but the illustrations are just too much to handle, giving the menus a highly lickable quotient factor.
No. 10
Design
Pentagram (Austin)
Thoughts
Simple combination of regular and condensed Futura is sandwiched with a cover featuring the restaurant’s great script logo and those wooden planks just scream “Eat!” for some reason.
No. 9
Design
Thoughts
Forget cheap plastic covers, these menus are delivered in freshly braised wooden planks. Okay, maybe not burnt on the spot, but it’s the closest you will get in time and distance to a hot brand poker.
No. 8
Design
Thoughts
The excellently named Torotoro brings the bright, fluorescent lights of Tokyo to you so that you can enjoy your Sushi.
No. 7
Design
Thoughts
Foregoing some of the trends of other menus, Storico goes full-on traditional and vintage with some glorious, centered serif stylings and some minor vignette illustrations.
No. 6
Design
Thoughts
Yes, yes, I’ll admit. I’m a sucker for script logos but you can’t deny that its look on the menu doesn’t want to make you puff that cigar.
No. 5
Design
Thoughts
A great serif selection served seared on a wooden plank that keeps the menu in place with a steampunk-ish clip.
No. 4
Design
Thoughts
Made to look like a diary, this menu might have you feeling like a peeping tom but what you might actually be feeling is the effect of the cocktails chronicled within.
No. 3
Design
Thoughts
Nestled inside a cheap-o cover this menu reveals an oddly appealing ASCII-art-esque typewriter selection.
No. 2
Design
Thoughts
Guilty once more: script logo alert! But also great illustrations, great typewriter typesetting, and, most importantly, great taxidermy presentation on the photos.
No. 1
Design
Thoughts
I never expected to choose these posters-as-menu as the best of the year but they do what any great menu should: establish the attitude and food style of the joint, describe as vividly as possible the menu options, and be aesthetically great. These individual illustrations make choosing the right hot dog easy by exaggerating the ingredients and helpfully pointing at each with a big arrow. Hand-drawn excellence all around too.
About
Art of the Menu, is a division of UnderConsideration, cataloguing the underrated creativity of menus from around the world.
Art of the Menu uses Typekit to render Proxima Nova by Mark Simonson and Adelle by Type Together.
Art of the Menu is run with Six Apart’s MovableType 6.8.8
All comments, ideas and thoughts on Art of the Menu are property of their authors; reproduction without the author’s or Art of the Menu’s permission is strictly prohibited
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About UnderConsideration
UnderConsideration is a graphic design firm generating its own projects, initiatives, and content while taking on limited client work. Run by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit in Bloomington, IN. More…
blogs we publish
Brand New / Displaying opinions and focusing solely on corporate and brand identity work.
Art of the Menu / Cataloguing the underrated creativity of menus from around the world.
Quipsologies / Chronicling the most curious, creative, and notable projects, stories, and events of the graphic design industry on a daily basis.
products we sell
Flaunt: Designing effective, compelling and memorable portfolios of creative work.
Brand New Conference videos / Individual, downloadable videos of every presentation since 2010.
Prints / A variety of posters, the majority from our AIforGA series.
Other / Various one-off products.
events we organize
Brand New Conference / A two-day event on corporate and brand identity with some of today's most active and influential practitioners from around the world.
Brand Nieuwe Conference / Ditto but in Amsterdam.
Austin Initiative for Graphic Awesomeness / A speaker series in Austin, TX, featuring some of the graphic design industry's most awesome people.
also
Favorite Things we've Made / In our capacity as graphic designers.
Projects we've Concluded / Long- and short-lived efforts.
UCllc News / Updates on what's going at the corporate level of UnderConsideration.
