The Old Man Menu no.5

Our studio was commissioned once again to create a new, fifth menu for The Old Man bar. The brief was simple: "Let's do something cool".

It seemed to be a perfect chance to go wild and turn a basic menu into an art magazine — a perfect form to play with typography and imagery, which are the key elements of the bar identity that we created a year before. Since the bar is dedicated to Ernest Hemingway and his literature, it was natural to go that route.

A full A4 size and 144-page menu was quite a bold and risky move for a high-volume bar, yet our risk paid off with tremendous success.

The goal that we wanted to achieve was to create a menu that would play a key role in guest experience: it entertains while guests are waiting for their friends to arrive, rich visuals help to pick a drink, flipping pages fulfills time while waiting for a drink to be ready, it is a good "prop" to take photos for social media, and most importantly, this menu provokes conversations among guests and with the bar crew.

After careful tasting and working sessions with the bar manager, we presented each cocktail with a photo essay linked to Hemingway's life, cocktail flavors, and infused with local Hong Kong aesthetics. Great attention was paid to bringing recognizable symbols of the city into the story, to make it a great souvenir for visitors to bring back home.

Filled with little secrets, jokes and mini-games, this menu can be presented by any of the bar crew members as an in-depth story, which will take about 20 minutes from end to end.

For convenience, the front cover is designed as a full list of cocktails — a shortcut for second round choices. Printed on basic white paper, wrapped in transparent vinyl cover and bound by elastic band, this menu stands for Hong Kong's famous attitude and practicality.

We had the joy to not just design the menu layout, but to make a wholesome art piece from concept to format, and from visual content to layout.