Overview
- Project Type
- Complete menu redesign and promotional materials
- Client
- A Pizza Mart (local pizza restaurant)
- Tools
- Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign
- Deliverables
- Print-ready takeout menu, window posters, promotional materials
A Pizza Mart came to me with a problem that a lot of small restaurants face: their takeout menu just wasn’t doing their food justice. This local American-style pizza joint’s existing menu was cramped, generic-looking, and honestly not very appetizing. The food photos were tiny and didn’t make you want to order anything. I knew I could help them present their extensive offerings in a way that would actually make people hungry.
Design Challenge
Here’s what made this project particularly interesting: Parwinder, the owner, wanted to keep all the existing content and categories exactly as they were. So I couldn’t reorganize or streamline—I had to work with everything they already had and just make it look and function better. It was like solving a puzzle: how do you take this overwhelming amount of information and make it scannable and appealing?
Design Approach
I decided to go with a classic chalkboard menu concept. It felt authentic and warm, perfect for a family-owned pizza place, and gave me a strong visual framework that could handle all that content without feeling cluttered. The chalkboard theme also let me mix food photography with chalk-style line art, which added visual interest throughout the menu.
I kept the color palette simple and authentic: traditional black and white like a chalkboard, with strategic pops of bright yellow for key headings and callouts. The real color came from the food photography, which I isolated in Photoshop to make sure each image really showcased the food.
Instead of using generic fonts, I chose typefaces with personality that reinforced the brand character while ensuring everything stayed super readable. The key was creating a clear hierarchy—using different font weights, sizes, and the yellow accent color so customers could quickly scan categories, items, and prices without getting lost.
The layout was all about making the customer experience as smooth as possible. Even with all that content, I created breathing room through strategic whitespace and organized everything into logical sections. I wanted someone to be able to grab this menu and quickly find what they were looking for, whether they were a first-time customer or a regular.
Working with the Client
Parwinder gave me tons of creative freedom, which was fantastic. Her main concern was keeping all the existing content, but beyond that, she trusted me to transform how it was presented. That kind of trust from a client makes all the difference—it let me make bold choices that really elevated the final result.
Results
The transformation was dramatic. We went from a generic, hard-to-read menu to something with real personality and professional polish. Parwinder was thrilled with how it turned out, and I was able to extend the design system to window posters and other promotional materials, giving A Pizza Mart a cohesive brand presence.
Move the sliders to compare the old and new menus below!
