Restaurant Project: Happy Plate
Take Control of your wellbeing
Happy Plate is a fun and energetic restaurant that is a speculative restaurant that I designed to help encourage positive mental health through eating. At Happy Plate, wellness is a main focus for us. I believe that being healthy doesn’t just mean going to the gym religiously but caring for your body and mind by eating a nourishing and balanced diet.
Purpose
As part of the goal to promote wellness, I created a restaurant with a unique twist. At Happy Plate the dishes that are made aid in your mental health, but here’s the twist; What makes Happy Plate different from other restaurants is that if you like the dish you ordered, you can ask your waiter or waitress for the recipe. You will then get the ingredients to make that dish delivered to your home so you can make it again! Happy Plate combines eating at a restaurant and a meal delivery kit together with the perk of boosting your mood.
Brainstorming
When I first started brainstorming for this project, I had a lot of ideas flowing. The two concepts that I narrowed down to were problem and experience. The problem concept aided in mental health and the experience one lets you ask for the recipe and get the ingredients delivered to you. I then decided to combine the two ideas into one. I knew I wanted the restaurant to be fun and playful, so I came up with two different names and played around with logos for them. The two names were “Serotonin to Go” or “Mind fuel.” With the help of my classmates, I went a different route and came up with Happy Plate and the slogan as “food for your mood.” I spent time doing visual research and sketching on a visual metaphor for mental health and food together.
Logo
Once I came up with the name Happy Plate it was easy for me to generate ideas. I wanted to play around with the Serotonin molecule because Serotonin is a naturally occurring monoamine neurotransmitter that carries signals between nerve cells throughout your body. It plays an important role in various brain and body functions, including mood stabilization, cognition, learning, memory, and sleep. I played around with the hexagon and pentagon shape. I wanted the logo to reflect the name and sometimes it just makes sense to use what’s right in front of you. I started simply by combining a plate with a smiley face.
The logo above is what I decided to go with because I liked that it still had the eating aspect in it with the utensils making the hexagon and the smiley face in the middle. I tweaked it a little to make it more playful and used a subtle yellow instead of a bright yellow that you would typically see on a smiley face.
Design Process
Colors: To represent Happy Plate, I used my fun and energetic aesthetics but kept a technical side because it was about health. My restaurant is also meant to be informative. To find a happy medium between fun and technical, I chose colors to reflect the playfulness of the restaurant but made them more subtle to reflect the technical part of my restaurant.
Typefaces: When finally choosing my logo, it came down to the font I wanted to use and the placement of it. I chose a serif font and settled on Volkorn because it was big and bold and conveyed the technical aspect of the restaurant. I used this font for the name of my restaurant in the logo. I then wanted to find a sans serif font that would work well with the serif font to make it less serious and more playful.
Patterns: I was drawn to the shape of my logo and decided to use the outline of the logo without the smiley face inside of it because I felt that it would be too busy. I made several patterns with that shape using my color palette with different values to make it more subtle. I then did the same with another pattern I made. Sticking with the hexagon shape I made the serotonin molecule and made a pattern out of that. I still used the same color palette I used with the other pattern. I felt that if I used black it would be too bold and heavy, which is not what I thought reflected my restaurant.
Environment
For my environment I wanted to really reflect my adjectives I chose; energized, happy, empowered. I chose to use my yellow hexagon pattern for the wallpaper. I wanted the lighting in the restaurant to be bright and make the atmosphere feel energized. I colored the shades of the lamps blue because I wanted to bring another color from my color palette into the environment. The blue helps bring that playfulness into the atmosphere.
Menu
For Happy Plate's menu, I aimed to communicate the restaurant’s focus on mental health through scientifically backed nutrition. Inspired by the scientific theme of the restaurant, I innovated a menu designed like a periodic table—a concept that immediately resonated during a class review, encouraging me to further develop this idea.
Collateral
For collateral I came up with stuff that is related to my concept. Since you can ask for the recipe and get food delivered to your home, I figured things like cookware would be perfect. I did things like pots and pans, cutting board, wooden spoons and spatulas, table and teaspoons and bowls and plates. I used the hexagon pattern in the pots, pans, bowls, and plates because I figured people would want to get them instead of the science, molecule pattern. I used the molecule pattern in other objects like the table and teaspoons, the oven mitt, and the water bottles. I also decided to make food containers aside from the packaging so people could store their leftovers. I kept those simple and just used the basic colors in my color palette.
Website
For my website I wanted to create an easy, simple accessible website. For the header I decided to just put menu, benefits, and recipe so it was easy to navigate. I felt that those were the most important things that needed separate pages. For the home page I made it a scrolling page to show images and give information about my restaurant. On the landing page you see an image of the interior of the restaurant and my slogan. As you keep scrolling you get to learn about my restaurant and the reasoning behind my menu and benefits. I decided to put an example recipe as well if people were curious or wanted to know more. At the bottom I allowed for customers to make a reservation and contact information.
Conclusion
Happy Plate is not just a speculative restaurant but it’s a journey of discovery and growth. Through this venture, I’ve learned a lot about the connection between food and mental well-being. Developing Happy Plate opened me up to exploring new skills like menu design, culinary activity, and understanding the psychology of dining experiences. Exploring how food, colors, and presentation can uplift moods and foster a sense of happiness has been both enlightening and fulfilling. It’s been incredibly fun to image and create a space where every dish is not only delicious but also serves as a nourishing treat for the mind. During this journey I had a lot of fun with this project because it allowed me to use my critical thinking skills and improve each week. I enjoyed getting into branding and believe this project will help in the future for this field.