The Summer Menu
For the past six years, I’ve been freelancing in design while simultaneously building a career in hospitality. Over time, both worlds started influencing each other more than I expected.
This project came from creating a seasonal summer menu for my bar team — a fast-paced, collaborative process that unexpectedly mirrored many parts of creative direction: concept building, teamwork, storytelling, editing ideas and shaping a final experience.
Concept:
he starting point was simple: we already had a good menu, but it needed a refresh.
It was the last week of May when my boss casually asked: “Why don’t you come up with a summer menu?”
A little short notice, but… why not?
With very limited time, I focused on a concept that felt clear and immediate: fruity and fresh. Broad enough to allow experimentation, but strong enough to give the menu a recognizable identity. Basically, it just needed to make sense.
The challenge wasn’t simply creating individual cocktails, but building a collection that could live across completely different moments:
a group of friends having drinks on the terrace after work
tourists escaping the Berlin heat under the air conditioning
someone ordering the same cocktail three times because “just one more” somehow kept happening
The menu needed variety, but also cohesion.
Collaboration & process
How do you create an entire menu in less than a week?
The answer is simple: teamwork.
I brought the concept to the bartenders and baristas, and suddenly everyone had ideas. Bottles started appearing on the bar, fruits were being cut everywhere, syrups tested, combinations shaken, rejected and tested again.
At some point, the whole venue became part of the process:
waiters recommending flavor combinations based on drinks they’d tried before
the host talking about her favorite summer flavors
the kitchen appearing with unexpected ideas and ingredients
everyone tasting, reacting, adjusting and debating
For a week, the menu became the main conversation in the building.
The process was fast, messy and incredibly collaborative:
testing and adjusting recipes
sharing references and inspirations
refining ideas through feedback
balancing creativity with practicality and timing
It reinforced something I already felt in creative work: strong ideas rarely come from one person alone.
Selection and Direction
Once the ideas existed, the real challenge became curation.
No matter how good individual cocktails were, the menu needed balance and structure. Different spirits, different flavor profiles, something sweet, something fresh, something spicy — every addition changed the overall system.
That’s when the process stopped feeling like recipe creation and started feeling much closer to art direction: editing, organizing, finding rhythm and making sure every piece strengthened the larger concept.
Then came the names.
Naming became its own collaborative chaos — throwing terrible jokes around, making the most nonsensical puns possible, and somehow shaping them into something cohesive, playful and aligned with the summer identity of the menu.
Design
The final step was translating the atmosphere of the menu into visuals.
The design needed to feel immediate, simple and unmistakably summery without becoming overloaded. Color, typography and layout were used to reflect the energy of the cocktails while keeping the menu approachable and easy to navigate in a fast hospitality environment.
The lack of time and resources didn’t limit creativity — if anything, it pushed it further. Canva, bright colors, quick decisions and catchy names somehow became a complete visual identity.
Results
It worked.
The worst thing about hospitality is the time pressure. The best thing about hospitality is how quickly you see the results.
That summer, our cocktails completely took over the terrace. Guests kept coming back to try different drinks, people recommended favorites to each other, and the team felt genuinely connected to what we had created because they had helped build it from the beginning.
The menu became more than a list of cocktails — it became a shared experience.
Reflection
This project made me realize how much hospitality and creative direction overlap.
Both rely on collaboration, timing, communication and the ability to shape many moving parts into one cohesive experience. Whether building a menu or developing a visual system, the process often comes down to the same thing: people working together to create something intentional, clear and memorable.
And honestly, this project probably taught me more about art direction than some design projects ever did.