Business Project

For this Business Project, I decided to create a plan of a traditional dim sum restaurant in Silver Spring, Maryland. This blog includes background of Chinese Dim Sum; general description of this restaurant, a consumer profile, and an explanation of design techniques used to create five business documents: logo, business card, flyer, menu, pamphlets and homepage interface.

Dim Sum Origins

Originally a Cantonese custom, dim sum is inextricably linked to the Chinese tradition of "yum cha" or drinking tea. Teahouses sprung up to accommodate weary travelers journeying along the famous Silk Road. Rural farmers, exhausted after long hours working in the fields, would also head to the local teahouse for an afternoon of tea and relaxing conversation. Still, it took several centuries for the culinary art of dim sum to develop. At one time it was considered inappropriate to combine tea with food: a famous 3rd century Imperial physician claimed this would lead to excessive weight gain. As tea's ability to aid in digestion and cleanse the palate became known, teahouse proprietors began adding a variety of snacks, and the tradition of dim sum was born.

Today, dim sum is served throughout China. The best Cantonese dim sum chefs are found in Hong Kong, where restaurants begin serving dim sum as early as 6:30 in the morning and continue through mid-afternoon. In the west, dim sum came about as a natural result of 19th century Chinese immigrants. Some gourmands believe that dim sum inspired the whole idea of "brunch" - combining breakfast and lunch into one large midmorning meal.

General description of the restaurant

Oriental East Restaurant is best known for extravagant Cantonese dim sum brunches featuring a wide variety of steamed, baked, and fried appetizer-sized treats. Oriental East is open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Dim sum is served daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Carry-out is available. Parking is free.

This bright dining restaurant in Silver Spring, Maryland has much to recommend. This excellent Hong Kong-style eatery attracts a large Chinese-American clientele, especially for its weekend dim sum. A line awaits the opening at 11 AM; those who arrive later can wait up to half an hour for a table. While the dim sum is great, the dinner menu has its own attractions.

Traditional dim sum includes various types of steamed buns such as dumplings and rice noodle rolls, which contain a range of ingredients, including beef chicken, pork, prawns and vegetarian options Oriental East Restaurant offers plates of steamed green vegetables, roasted meats, congee porridge and other soups. They also serve delicious shrimp dumplings wrapped in seaweed and topped with a dollop of salmon caviar. There are a lot Chinese restaurants in Maryland, regarding as the potential competitors. However, this Dim sum restaurant serves the best traditional Hong Kong-style cuisine and delicious taste among all Chinese dim sum restaurants nearby.  

Audience

For over 15 years, Oriental East has served the finest traditional Cantonese cuisine. They also feature a delicate menu of House Recommendations. Most dishes can be prepared with no MSG or less oil. “Oriental East has an atmosphere that welcomes families, couples and anyone with a yen for genuine Chinese cuisine” by The Journal Newspapers.

The serving sizes are usually small and normally served as three or four pieces in one dish. It is customary to order family style, sharing dishes among all members of the dining party. Because of the small portions, people can try a wide variety of food.

Re-design of the webpage

BEFORE

The current page looks fine at the first glance. Basically, they use a white background with red colored text column in the middle. An image of the traditional Dim Sum dishes is provided to attract the audience. However, this blurred image seems not authentic at all. What I have found the two main things in the readings are “how to catch the eye” and “how to sell the product”. First, a useful device when thinking about visual design is to glance at crowded notice boards and see what’s your focal point. Obviously, the original homepage has no shining point. Besides, as well as being eye-catching, the design needs to hook audience and motivate them to keep reading. Both image and text must be related in a balance to express the selling points. For those who have no idea or less knowledge about Dim Sum cuisine, it’s necessary to provide a brief introduction. They emphasize the reviews and open hours, but the layout is poor and the content is so abstract that fails to express the key information of this restaurant. Address and contact information has been provided right behind the logo on the top of the website. White space is the absence of content. It can make or break the effective transmission of image and text. The “before” website has these features, but neither of them effectively reflect the harmony and unity with other elements. Thus, the homepage was not well planned and needs to be redesigned. 

AFTER

Even though the background still goes to white, I amplified the visual impact by changing the logo, font, Dim Sum dishes images, and address map. It’s extremely helpful to attract audience with delicate dishes. “Dumplings”, as you have seen on the top bar, is the most popular dish in Dim Sum restaurant. I kept two red columns on the left because reviews seemed only as the reference. I created four text boxes on the right as indicating, “where is Dim Sum from”, “what we serve”, “how we serve”, and “service we provide”. In each box, I cropped the Dim Sum dishes in a round shape because “round” object represents the table, the dish, the bowl, and the teapot in the restaurant. At the bottom of the page, I used logo and address again in a centered alignment. The repetition of “Oriental East Restaurant”, “Dim Sum”, “logo and address” is the emphasis of unity. Since the new version of homepage provided more texts than before, designers must entice readers by taking risks in design and including white space to break up the text. Risk in design is achieved by creating contrast. This includes contrast between headings and text, fonts, image size, incorporating bold rules, and color. Creating white space on a page filled with text is challenge, but experimenting with alignment can help. With these improvements to the revision page, it will be easier to navigate and find information. 

Brochures

 
Chapter 13 (William and Tollett, 2007) demonstrates ways to make your brochure stand out. Since the document provide lots of texts, designers must entice readers by taking risks in design and including white space to break up the text. Risk in design is achieved by creating contrast. This includes contrast between headings and text, fonts, image size, incorporating bold rules, and color. Creating white space on a page filled with text is challenge, but experimenting with alignment can help, as well as eliminating superfluous elements such as large page numbers. In the pamphlet, more detailed information about Oriental East Restaurant has been used. I used font “Garamond” for the body text, “Eurostile” typeface for the address to keep the same style as the Business card. I tried to continue the color theme I established with my Business Card. The image I chose was supposed to welcome people to have a try in the restaurant. I made a dumpling recipe for fun in the brochure. On the last page, it’s important to have a direction and a map.

Menu - Specials

I downloaded their regular menus, carry-outs and House recommendations, it’s concise but pretty boring. I believed a lot of Americans were confused about how to order Dim Sum dishes in the restaurant. In this business plan, I am going to create a two-page menu of Specials with authentic design to target more patrons by using several basic principles that has been discussed. I picked 36 dishes as a reference for those who had no idea about what to eat. In each square, there was a number, a brief introduction, and a dish picture. I put all those in an order and my ultimate goal is to provide the convenient service for people to order either by person or by phone. Lastly, colors I used for this menu match the logo.

FLyer

I created this flyer by using Brother.com. Since this is a separate flyer on the purpose of restaurant promotion and advertisement, I chose brighter theme including color and images. In this flyer, there are many “round” objects because they will send the message of “Oriental East Restaurant is a family-friendly restaurant”. In addition, “round” represents the table, the dish, the bowl, and the teapot in the restaurant. I used the default font from Brother.com which best contain the information of “delicate cuisine”, open hours and address. 


 

Business Card

As stated in chapter 2 in The Elements of Design, “the designer’s job is to determine what kind of typographic form” to form when handed a new project. With so many options available to designers, one must organize their thoughts, shapes, and message as to reach the largest demographic or audience. I chose a centered alignment as a layout to deliver the most important messages. The business card has a front and a back. For the front side, I put the logo on the top with shadow below. I avoided unnecessary punctuation in the address area by spelling out the street and using spaces between the digits of the phone number. In order to enhance the impact of my name, I chose different typefaces for the rest of the body text. Font “Eurostile” looks neat and formal. For the backside, I made a watermark image of “a table of Dim Sum dishes” as a background and highlighted the “open hours” of Oriental East Restaurant to the front. 

Logo Design

This was the first piece I created. According to chapter 6 in Williams and Tollett’s book, one of the most dynamic tools graphic designers use to create great logos is the symbol. When designing a company logo, one of the main things is to define the identity. Since this is a logo for a restaurant, the name of the restaurant, both Chinese and English become the priority. The red signboard with gold edge is the traditional Chinese design, however, the color contrast is pretty modern and simple style together with the font “Copperplate” at the bottom. When people see this logo, it will remind them of the Dim Sum, Chinese ancient cuisine. Thus, a logo becomes the symbol for the restaurant’s identity.