By Katherine Jensen in FSS Marketing — 01 Feb 2020

Rebranding The Overrun: Menu Design & Launch Marketing

A full rebrand of the Columbus Club restaurant: Starting with only the list of menu items to printed menus, table cards, and a social media launch with a visiting HQ chef.

Print Design • FSS Marketing • Social Media • Brand Identity

The brief

The club's restaurant was getting a new name: The Overrun

And not only that, but it also wanted a new look to go with it. This meant collaborating with the POC and building a cohesive brand from the ground up: a visual identity, a full menu suite, and a marketing push to get people through the door on opening day.

Design & production

I designed the entire menu system: the main lunch and à la carte menu, a bar menu for lounge hours, and a $5 kids' menu. Since Columbus Air Force Base is a long-time UPT location, the training needed to be cohesive and familiar with all the pilots, young and old.

I stuck with the same visual identity: topographic line textures, a distressed stamp logo, and a bold cream-and-burgundy palette that felt military-casual without being generic. Every menu type had its own format and layout logic, but they all looked like they belonged to the same place.

For the bar, I produced a table-top card version of the bar menu, something guests could grab and read without flagging down a server. And for the main menu, I had an extra-large format printed to create a physical wow moment at the entrance. And no, you did not have to take that menu to a "really big restaurant to use it."

The launch shoot

Momentum around the opening and rebranding was crucial; my coworker and I coordinated a content shoot in the kitchen while the head chef from HQ in San Antonio was on site. We captured the food alongside the new menu. Real dishes, real branding, no stock photos. That content went straight to social media to drive awareness and interest for the relaunch.

It was the kind of project where design, operations, and marketing all had to move together, and taking advantage of the HQ chef's presence to make the launch content look as good as the food tasted was a pretty great bonus.