This week continues the branding of the illustrious Super Diner. Learning from the Behance Adobe Illustrator challenges has been super fun. I learned how to use paragraph styles to quickly update large sections of text. Combining what I have learned from previous challenges, it’s becoming easier to try out different designs quickly.

I began by placing a text document into Illustrator. In the past I would take each section separately to create a design. This time I started with all the text in one paragraph block. By highlighting a section of text and choosing the color, font, style, and then clicking on a new paragraph style, you can set those parameters for any part of your paragraph moving forward.

I set up styles for different types of food, descriptions of food, and food names. This allowed me to quickly test out different fonts without having to go back in and edit each section individually. Another option I didn’t know about was columns. Setting up multiple columns for a single paragraph block allows the text to wrap into multiple sections with perfect spacing in one button click. For me this was a game changer. The menu was quickly coming together.

Using the triangle motif in the Super Diner logo, I created a background pattern for the menu. Saving the pattern to the color palette let me use the pattern inside different shapes quickly without having to copy and paste it a million times. I dropped the opacity of the pattern to let the main elements draw more attention. And there you have it. A fully functional diner menu.

One challenge I did have to overcome was fitting the entire menu on one page, while still having it be legible. That’s where paragraph styles really came in handy. Adjusting sizing and spacing without having to worry about overwriting other sections is a life saver. Can’t wait to see what other features I have never used before.

Super Diner Menu