CAFÉ DES LILAS

Assorted bread including a baguette in paper bag, round loaf, and sliced bread on cutting board, with Café des Lilas logo on napkin, card, and business card, all arranged on a gray surface with wooden utensils.

PROJECT INFO

Project Background
Café des Lilas is a fictitious cafe that plans to open in Kitchener. It offers a warm and inviting space where customers can get away from real life and indulge in authentic French pastries, sandwiches made with artisanal bread, and specialty coffee. Every element, from the menu to the decor to the music, would take inspiration from French culture to transport customers to France. They aim for customers to feel inspired by being in such a beautiful place, targeting coffee shop enthusiasts, Francophones, and artists.

Project Objectives
To develop a cohesive visual identity and a menu design.

Problem
To be easily recognizable and establish a cohesive presence online and in person, the company needs a brand identity. There are numerous cafes in the area, and the competition is strong. The brand, therefore, needs a strong visual identity (logo and brand guidelines) and a print menu design for dining.

Disciplines
Branding, Menu Design

Date
2025

Tools & Platforms
Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop

VISUAL IDENTITY

01. BRAND GUIDELINES

The visual identity was designed to be elegant and refined to communicate its origins and values by using Baroque- and Rococo-inspired ornamentation and floral elements. They were both sourced from the public domain and hand-drawn. The serif typography and sober colour palette further convey the brand’s essence. The symmetry throughout the visual language conveys order and harmony.

Open brochure or menu describing Café des Lilas with sections about the company, mission, vision, and values, using blue text on a beige background.
Page comparing primary and secondary typefaces, featuring examples of Argent CF and La Parisienne fonts, with sample alphabet, text, and descriptions.
Two pages of branding guidelines for Cafe des Lilas showing logo size limits and usage, including minimum and standard sizes, with sample logos and dimensions in inches and pixels.
Photograph of an open magazine spread with pages dedicated to illustrations and photography, featuring text and images of baked goods, coffee, and a patio dining area.

02. LOGO DESIGN

The logo makes use of symmetry to achieve a harmonious and almost regal look with its resemblance to a tiara. It consists of ornamentation and flourishes, evocative of high-quality and grandeur. The highly detailed look also speaks to its clientele.

The thick and thin strokes convey a sense of elegance. Inside the central circle is an engraved lilac bouquet to pay homage to the cafe’s name.

Blue sign for Café des Lilas, a pastry and bakery shop, mounted on the corner of a stone building.
Assorted bakery items, including a round loaf of bread, a small baguette partially wrapped in a white paper bag with a blue logo, a sliced piece of bread, and a small bread roll, along with bakery tools like a wooden spoon, a small wooden spreader, a rolling pin, and a cutting board on a gray surface. There are also blue branded items with the logo "Café des Lilas."
Collection of vintage-style blue text logos for 'Le Café des Lilas' on a white background, featuring decorative borders, floral motifs, and handwritten-style fonts.

PROCESS

I started by sketching out crest-like logos with elegant swoops, intricate frames, and different typographic styles. I settled on three concepts for consideration with three different typefaces, colours, and systems. I looked into antique picture frames and French architectural details for inspiration.

Logo for Café des Lilas, a patisserie and bakery, on a dark blue background.
Logo of Café des Lilas, a bakery and bread shop, with elegant floral design and French text.
Red background with white decorative logo for Café des Lilas

MENU DESIGN

Inspired by Baroque architecture, the menu comprises intricate arches adorned with florals and foliage that frame the entire page to echo the French branding. The menu items were laid out in such a way as to achieve the most visual harmony.

A person holding a blue leather menu on a table with red and white checkered tablecloth, featuring French cafe dishes and drinks.
Menu for Café des Lilas featuring pastries and viennoiseries with prices listed in US dollars.
Menu from Café des Lilas featuring sandwiches and café options listed in French and English with decorative blue floral border.

PROCESS

I looked for inspiration from historical menu designs of the past, sketched out some thumbnails with a more modern take, and developed three distinct designs for the three concepts. From my research, framing was a recurring element in historical layout designs with varying levels of detail and illustration.

A collection of nine hand-drawn menu sketches for a bakery named 'Café des Lilas,' featuring decorative borders and illustrations of teapots, cups, and flowers.
Menu for a bakery with sections for pastries and desserts, listing items and prices in blue text on a light purple background, featuring a decorative globe illustration at the bottom right corner.
Menu displaying sandwiches, social media links, and coffee options at Café des Lilas, with items and prices listed.
Menu from Café des Lilas featuring coffee drinks and sandwiches, with blue decorative border.
French pastry and bakery menu with pastries on the left and Viennoiseries on the right, decorated with ornate blue border, from Café des Lilas.
Menu from Café des Lilas offering sandwiches and coffee, with items like cured sausage and pickles, grilled cheese, ham and bayonne ham, goat cheese with honey toast, tuna and veggie, country pate, ham and emmental cheese, as well as espresso, mochaccino, coffee with milk, and viennese coffee.
Menu of pastries and confections at Café des Lilas, including mille-feuille, lemon meringue pie, Paris-Brest, cream puff, apple tartin, canelé, flambéed orange butter crêpes, Madeleine, opera cake, and various viennoiseries like croissants, brioche, pain au chocolat, apple turnover, raisin bun, and kouign-amann, with prices listed.