Global Menu

REDESIGN

Art Direction — Redline Media Group
Client: Hard Rock Cafe
Campaign: Global Menu Redesign • Year: 2023-2025

Art Director, responsible for the visual direction and design selection of Hard Rock Cafe's first full menu redesign in over five years, from concept through the final food and cover photoshoots.

My Role

Overview

Hard Rock Cafe's menu had gone largely unchanged for more than five years. As the brand prepared to reintroduce itself to guests worldwide, Hard Rock's internal operations, production, and culinary teams spent close to two years developing new dishes, while Redline Media Group led the visual reinvention of how that menu would be presented across 150+ Hard Rock Cafe locations globally. As Art Director, I was responsible for guiding the design direction from the earliest concept stage through final production.

Process

IMPACT

The 2025 global menu redesign marked Hard Rock Cafe's first major visual overhaul of its guest-facing menu in over five years, rolling out across 150+ locations worldwide. The clean, contemporary design and appetite-driven photography style became the new visual standard for how Hard Rock presents food globally, replacing a design system that had remained static for half a decade.

The redesign began with a wide creative net: multiple designers were brought in to pitch different visual directions for the new menu system. I led the review and selection process, narrowing the field down to a single cohesive design language built around three core principles — a simple, uncluttered layout, modern typography, and food photography that could do the selling on its own.

For the photography direction, I art directed the shift to a deconstructed, top-down (flat lay) style — breaking each dish apart to show its individual textures, ingredients, and flavors in a way that traditional plated shots couldn't. The goal was food photography mouthwatering enough to work as a sales tool in itself, paired with an elegant, minimalist cover design that set the tone for the entire book.

My responsibilities spanned:

  • Reviewing and selecting the winning design direction from multiple designer pitches

  • Art directing the food photoshoot, including styling direction for the deconstructed, overhead shots

  • Art directing the cover photoshoot and overall visual identity of the menu

  • Overseeing retouching to ensure consistency across every dish and every market

  • Coordinating execution and rollout of the final design across the global Hard Rock Cafe system