Brand Avenue

Menu Psychology

(Before and after: Tabla's menu. Via the NYT)

What's in a font? Or, better yet: what goes into that elusive synthesis of typography, colors, white space, and carefully chosen adjectives that make up a great menu?

A great deal, if you are a restauranteur fighting for customers in a dismal economy:

Tabla is just one of the many restaurants around the country that are feverishly revising their menus. Pounded by the recession, they are hoping that some magic combination of prices, adjectives, fonts, type sizes, ink colors and placement on the page can coax diners into spending a little more money.

The use of menu engineers and consultants is exploding in the casual dining arena and among national chains, a sector of the business that has been especially pinched by the economy. In response, they are tapping into a growing body of research into the science of menu pricing and writing, hoping the way to a diner’s heart is not only through the stomach, but through the unconscious.

More.

Frame, Forest, Thread

Below, Field Operations imagines three potential redesigns for Cleveland's forlorn public heart, Public Square.

(Via Fast Company)

The ideas for Public Square's transformation come at the behest of two Cleveland non-profits, Parkworks and the Downtown Cleveland Alliance:

The economic rationale is that big, splashy public amenities are actually huge drivers of long-term real-estate values, attracting surrounding investment (just look at Central Park in New York, or, more recently, Millennium Park in Chicago). Though the plan has yet to secure any funding, the idea is that investing up front in the design might spark public interest and widespread support.

My sense is that the success of any of the schemes lies almost as much in the programming and scheduling of the space as it does in the form and texture. That said, the "thread" scheme is an early favorite, apparently.

More.

"This Isn't About Any Other Brand"

Starting with its Chelsea outpost in New York, global fast-food giant McDonalds plans a revamp of its American outlets with Jacobsen-inspired furnishings, wireless connectivity, and plasma-screen televisions. The changes come as the ways customers use the spaces are changing:

The menu at the 186-seat Chelsea outlet is the same as any other McDonald's. But the differences are stark. The walls are decorated with bold vertical stripes or with what looks like a zebra design but is actually French architect Philippe Avanzi's magnified thumbprint. Tables are of different sizes to accommodate small groups or an informal business meeting — and Hendel said nearby workers have started meeting there. There are reproductions of Danish designer Arne Jacobsen's chairs including the Egg chair, a classic of mid-century functionality that would look right at home on "The Jetsons."

More.
Earlier.

Bridge and Tunnel

Two massive infrastructure improvements--one underway, the other recently completed--aim to transform transportation connections in and out of central Dublin. Below, a video describes DART Underground, which will unite multiple modes of transportation and forge a new and vital link under the ancient city center.



To the east of where most DART Underground construction will take place, a new, high-tech, harp-like bridge gracefully spans the River Liffey.

(Via the Guardian.)

The designer was Santiago Calatrava, the Valencian architect who has made expressionist bridges and weirdly torqued structures a trademark. Never mind that Beckett made a virtue of muted understatement. The writer once said "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness". Calatrava does not think that way. He's in the landmark business.

This is Calatrava's second bridge in Dublin – the first was dedicated to James Joyce and opened in 2003. The new Beckett Bridge is technically interesting: the structure is cable-stayed from a 40-metre pylon. The span across the Liffey is 124m and carries two lanes of motor traffic, one of cycles and one of Godots. Trains may come later. Hydraulic apparatus allows the bridge to swing through 90 degrees in the horizontal plane to allow ships to pass.

More.

Another Vancouver

(Via the NYT.)

Vancouver, Washington--a city of over 160,000 residents, sitting serenely across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon--is giving itself a stern talking-to. A search for identity ensues:

With world attention about to focus on that other Vancouver, the one with the international cachet, the creative cuisine and the cosmopolitan diversity, this Vancouver is having a tough talk with itself. How, it is asking, can a former mill town that has become an increasingly assertive city, a place that courts high-tech companies and takes pride in its expanding university campus, make a name for itself when another city with the same name in the same misty vicinity of North America has already done so and then some?

More. 

Gang Tourism

 (Via the LA Times)

A nonprofit Los Angeles tour operator plans bus circuits of some of that city's most notorious gang turf, "including decayed public housing, sites of deadly shootouts and streets ravaged by racial unrest." It's a tourist's quest for authenticity on one end, and a micro-financing plan on the other:

After a VIP preview last weekend, L.A. Gang Tours expects to open to the public in January, giving tourists a look at the cradle of the nation's gang culture -- the birthplace of many of the city's gangs, including Crips and Bloods, Florencia 13 and 18th Street. "This is ground zero for a lot of the bad in this city. It could be ground zero for a lot of the good too," said Alfred Lomas, a former Florencia member who has become a leading gang intervention worker in South Los Angeles and is spearheading the tours. "This is true community empowerment."

More.

Earlier, in Rio.

Branded Boroughs

Kosmograd shares an immensely clever concept for giving each of London's boroughs a brand makeover, deriving from a 19th century mapping exercise. Proceeding from roots in actual geographic constraints, each borough's abstracted shape becomes an icon, both unique and recognizable as part of a greater whole.

  (Ex: the borough of Westminster)

More.