Suggestion And Ideas Needed

[facesoflife]

I am working on a website for a resturant. I have been asked to put the menu online. I am looking for ideas and suggestions on how to make it look more appealing then what I have so far. All ideas are welcome. I would like it to be something I can make in dreamweaver as I dont know flash. http://www.thethunderbar.com/menu.htmlthanks!!

[Jerry62704]

I am working on a website for a resturant. I have been asked to put the menu online. I am looking for ideas and suggestions on how to make it look more appealing then what I have so far. All ideas are welcome. I would like it to be something I can make in dreamweaver as I dont know flash. http://www.thethunderbar.com/menu.htmlthanks!!

First thing I would do is see what McDonalds does. That would include putting a picture next to each item.Second thing I would do is lose the lines.Third thing is lose the table and go with css.

[shadowayex]

If you can, make a background image for a div that looked like a menu then used CSS to place items on the "menu" under different categories and whatnot =DThat's what I would do.

[jeffman]

First thing I would do is see what McDonalds does. That would include putting a picture next to each item.

FWIW, photographing food and making it look good is very hard. Advertisers employ specialists, who often use non-food items or strange tricks. I seem to remember someone painting a turkey with a caramel solution before roasting it 15 minutes to bring out the golden brown color. The rest of it was raw, but it sure looked good!Mom-and-pop restaurants rarely have food photos, and when they do, they usually look bad.Which is not to say it's impossible. Here's a fun and informative link I just found: http://www.shutterbug.com/features/1204insider/

[inktherapy]

Yes, advertising side is definitely hard but it can be thought, I remember when I was in college we have this photogra class its a photography class. I think advertising has a convention especially for this kind of market, I recall dealing with lighting, use of colors for attracting customers, appetite, moods etc. Theres a concept and being creative is not just a skill but also a talent. You can research it online maybe google it.

[amj]

Might be an idea to create a PDF menu page that then looks quite smart. You can create posh PDF's and print them using one of the many free PDF writers such as PDFCreator from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ or use Sun's Open Office and the export as PDF option. Might also be useful to print it out for your cafe.Glad to see that the majority of your items do not change from week to week. I have in the past created a menu system for a school that had a new menu for each week and then that gets quite complex.

[Jerry62704]

FWIW, photographing food and making it look good is very hard. Advertisers employ specialists, who often use non-food items or strange tricks. I seem to remember someone painting a turkey with a caramel solution before roasting it 15 minutes to bring out the golden brown color. The rest of it was raw, but it sure looked good!Mom-and-pop restaurants rarely have food photos, and when they do, they usually look bad.Which is not to say it's impossible. Here's a fun and informative link I just found: http://www.shutterbug.com/features/1204insider/

I remember how they would put french fries under the meat to make it look bigger or push it out the front a little knowing the back was hidden in the shot. I agree the hobbiest might not be able to pull off a good photo.