Failure Resume

Inspiration: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/smarter-living/failure-resume.html

2021

Menu Disaster

Early into the branding process for a restaurant, everyone went into lock down for COVID-19. After a year, the restaurant was ready to pick things back up. The logo was already designed along with some other print materials, and next we had to design the menu.

After some discussions regarding the menu, we set out for a few weeks to work up some design options. As the meeting to present the menu got rolling, it became fairly evident that the clients were not enthused about what they saw. While I can’t remember their exact words, they had made a comment along the lines of “This is very far off. We need to start over.”

They were disappointed. I was disappointed. It was all very disappointing. As I reflected on it, it was clear that it was a classic case of miscommunication.

In a previous meeting, they went on and on about a particular restaurant’s menu which is quite minimal, and made it clear that they didn’t want to look like this other restaurant which was fairly ornate.

It wasn’t until our disaster meeting that we learned that simple menu was “on brand” with the respective restaurant which is why they liked it. They still wanted something ornate to complement their brand, but they just wanted to keep their distance from the other ornate menu they referenced.