Specialty Menus
Here’s some coordinating menus I created to promote a special Lodge-branded whisky. I used branding colors and fonts to fuse the timeless style of the Lodge with the classic Maker’s Mark brand.
September is Honey & Bourbon month so I created these assets for the specials.
Specialty menus for holidays
Here’s an assortment of other menus I’ve worked on.
These handouts were created to be an informational addition to the bourbon flights, which is a new addition to the libations menu. The bourbon flights have quite a big difference in the amount of tasting notes, so a design challenge was to make them visually similar while accounting for the difference in copy length. I also added a simple but nice graphic that was appropriate to the content and keeps within branding colors. I like the way the casks fill out the empty space on the pages with less text. Seaching for just the right graphic is kind of fun for me. I really like how these coordinate. I paid special attention to the font size and formatting so everything lines up.
Twin Peaks Day is celebrated at the Lodge in honor of the TV show Twin Peaks in the ’90s, some of which was filmed at the Lodge. The show’s main character, Kyle M has his own winery. This menu blends show-themed food items and Pursued by Bear wines. I used branding elements from the winery and menu elements from the Specials menu to create this menu.
Washington Wine Month is in March. I created these menus to feature the wine specials.
Kids Menus
Kid’s menus are fun to do because of the blending of bright color elements and areas to be colored.
Wine Flight Menu Inserts
I designed these graphics as menu inserts to promote Washington Wine Month at the lodge.
Additional Menu Work
A large part of the work that I do for the Lodge is menu edits. I don’t include images of this work because I didn’t create those menus, I only edit them. This part of the job isn’t creative, but it requires attention to detail and consistency. One of the biggest challenges is the seasonal menu change. There are several different venues each with their own main menu. Additionally there are two vegan menus, two kid’s menus, and a dessert menu, as well as a menu for room service and an exclusive 268 menu for in house guests. I’ve worked on the Fire Pit menu, the After Hours Menu and the Spa Beverage menu as well.
The main Libations menu has been a project I’ve stepped up to with the goal of creating a resource for both guests and servers to feature all the wines and liquors in one place. The Lodge has an extensive wine selection, and I overhauled the wine section for consistency with how the wines are listed, including vintage and region. I made room for additions to the extensive Whiskey & Bourbon list. I also added pages to list all of the other liquors available. Additionally, I made a Last Call bottle list menu. This requires a lot of attention to detail with how the wine is listed. For example a French wine might have a special accent on one of the letters. I also have to be sure each wine has the varietal and region, and this information is not always given to me. I’ve gotten very good at looking up a bottle of wine to see where it was made or what varietal it is. After all this time working around wine, I still come across varietals I’ve never heard of!
As a side note, I really like wine bottle graphics. The labels are really cool and imaginative sometimes. I especially like wine corks. I came across a champagne bucket full of wine corks at work one day. I knew there had to be crafts and stuff, so I got on Pinterest. Woah, too many ideas! I have an extensive Pinterest board for cork crafts of all sizes. I started making cork murals, one of which hangs in one of the meeting rooms at the lodge. I like the graphics on the wine cork, on the side and on each end. The older corks are darker and look vintage-y and cool. I like the cork graphics that have some kind of image. A local winery, Abeja, has a bee on their corks on the circle ends. Its those little touches that I love so much.