How to Design a Menu Board That Builds Brand Trust
Description: A complete guide to menu board design for restaurants, cafés and takeaways, covering layout, materials, digital displays and supplier selection in the UK.
Date: 2026-07-13T06:23:18+00:00

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- Digital Signage, Indoor signage

## How to Design a Restaurant Menu Board for Branding and Impression

- July 13, 2026
- 6:23 am

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Walk past any busy high street and you’ll notice the same problem repeating itself: menus that are hard to read from the door, prices that don’t line up with the dishes they belong to, and boards so cluttered that customers give up and walk on. For a restaurant, café or takeaway, that’s a lost custom happening in real time.

The good news is that this is a design problem, and design problems have solutions. Whether you’re running a busy café in the Northern Quarter or a family restaurant on the outskirts of the city, the right cafe menu board does more than list what’s on offer. It sets the tone before a single word is spoken. At Manchester Signs Centre, we’ve worked with cafes, restaurants, pubs and takeaways across the city to design and install menu board that are easy to read, properly branded and built to last, so this guide draws on what we’ve actually seen work.

## Why Your Menu Board Shapes First Impressions

Before a customer orders anything, they’re already forming an opinion. A cluttered, faded or poorly lit board suggests a rushed operation. A clean, well-organised one suggests care, and diners tend to assume that care carries through to the food. An effective restaurant menu board balances clarity and visual appeal, giving customers confidence in what they’re about to order before they’ve even reached the counter.

Consistency matters here too. If your menu board uses different fonts, colours or styles to the rest of your signage, it breaks the visual thread that ties your brand together. The board should feel like it belongs to the same business as your shopfront sign, your packaging and your website, not like an afterthought bolted on near the till.

Accessibility plays a bigger role in trust than many businesses realise. Use icons to indicate dietary preferences and allergens on menu items, rather than burying that information in small print or leaving it out altogether. Customers with allergies or dietary restrictions notice when a business has thought about this, and it builds the kind of trust that keeps people coming back. This matters most for takeaways and cafés selling pre-packed items such as sandwiches, where Natasha’s Law sets out specific labelling requirements

## Digital vs Printed Menu Board: Which Is Right for Your Restaurant?

Menu board can be digital or traditional options, and the right choice depends less on trends and more on how often your offering changes. A café with rotating specials suits a different setup to a fish and chip shop with a menu that’s stayed the same for a decade.

| Digital Menu Boards | Printed Menus
Best for | Frequent price or menu changes | Stable, rarely changed menus
Upfront cost | Higher | Lower
Running cost | Lower over time | Ongoing reprint costs
Update speed | Instant | Requires new print
Feel | Modern, dynamic | Traditional, tactile

Digital menu boards allow instant updates to pricing and promotions, which matters if you run daily specials, seasonal dishes or time-based pricing such as breakfast and lunch menus. There’s no waiting on a print run or paying for boards that go out of date the moment stock runs low.

Printed menus still have a place, and not just for budget reasons. Chalkboard menus are a popular traditional option for pubs and cafés wanting a handwritten, personal feel that fits an established or heritage brand. A fine dining restaurant with a fixed seasonal menu may find a well-printed board says more about quality than a screen ever could.

Footfall and environment matter too. A takeaway with constant queuing benefits from a large, clear digital display takeaway menu board that customers can read while they wait. A quieter bistro with table service has more flexibility, since diners have time to study a printed menu without pressure.

## Digital Menu Board: Setup, Content and Management

A cloud-based CMS allows remote content management, meaning you or your team can update prices, swap out dishes or launch a promotion from a phone or laptop without touching the display itself. This matters most for multi-site businesses, but even a single café benefits from not having to climb up and manually adjust a screen every time a price changes.

Scheduling is where digital boards earn their keep. You can set breakfast, lunch and evening menus to switch automatically at set times, so the display always matches what’s actually being served without anyone needing to remember to change it. For a business running multiple screens across different zones, such as a bar area and a dining area, this keeps everything consistent without extra staff effort.

They can operate 24/7 with commercial-grade outdoor displays, which is not the same as using a consumer television behind the counter. Panels built for continuous commercial use are designed to handle constant operation without the screen burn-in or early failure you’d risk with domestic equipment.

Templates help maintain brand consistency across screens, so fonts, colours and layout stay uniform even as content changes daily. This also speeds up the update process, since new items can be dropped into an existing structure rather than designed from scratch each time.

Before choosing a supplier, ask about installation, CMS training and support. A screen is only as useful as the team’s ability to manage it, so proper training at the point of installation, plus ongoing support if something goes wrong, should be part of the package rather than an extra cost.

## Printed Menus and Static Menu Board: Materials and Finishes

### Choosing Durable Materials for Indoor Use

Boards near a kitchen pass or entrance take daily wear from steam, spills and constant handling, so a flimsy substrate will look tired within months. For indoor use in a busy restaurant or café, rigid materials such as foam board, aluminium composite or acrylic hold up far better under that kind of pressure than standard paper or card.

### Standard and Custom Sizing

Standard restaurant menu board sizes include A3, A2 and A1, which suit most counter displays, window menus and freestanding boards. For larger installations, such as a feature wall behind a till or an outdoor hanging sign, the maximum print size for the menu board is 1200mm x 2400mm, giving enough scale for a full menu or a bold statement piece without needing to join multiple panels. Custom sizes up to large-format panels can also be produced to fit awkward wall spaces, arched doorways or oversized feature areas that standard sizing won’t cover.

### Protective Finishes

Lamination guards against moisture and everyday scuffing, extending the life of any printed board considerably. Cases with a lockable front panel let you slide new inserts in and out without damaging the print behind them, which suits menus that change seasonally rather than daily.

### Sustainable and In-House Options

Eco-friendly board options are increasingly available for businesses that want their materials to reflect the same values as their food sourcing, using recycled substrates or sustainably produced inks without a noticeable difference in finish quality. Many sign companies, including ours, offer in-house signage design and installation services, so the artwork and the physical board come from the same team, which keeps colours, fonts and finishing consistent from file to finished product.

## Menu Board Design Principles That Actually Work

### Visual Hierarchy and Categorisation

Organise menu items into clear categories for quick customer navigation, such as starters, mains, sides and drinks, rather than listing everything in one continuous block. Use font sizes and weights to create visual hierarchy on a menu board, so category headings stand out clearly from item names, and item names stand out from descriptions. This lets a customer scan the board and find what they want in seconds rather than reading every line.

### Typography and Legibility

Ensure large, legible text can be read from a distance on menu board, particularly for boards positioned above a counter or near an entrance where customers are still walking towards it. Use high contrast between text and background for better visibility, since low-contrast combinations such as pale grey on white might look elegant on screen but fail completely under kitchen lighting. Limit the board to two or three typefaces at most. More than that and the design starts to look disorganised rather than considered.

### Whitespace and Layout

Leave ample whitespace on menus to enhance readability and reduce clutter. A board packed edge to edge with text and images feels overwhelming and actually slows customers down, even though the intention is usually to fit in more information. Give each section room to breathe.

### Pricing Placement

Display pricing clearly and visibly alongside item names on menus, with prices aligned and easy to scan on the menu sign, ideally in a consistent column rather than scattered inline. Avoid using dollar signs in pricing to reduce perceived cost. In UK settings this extends to keeping currency symbols minimal and consistent throughout, since a clean price column reads faster than one broken up by repeated symbols.

### Descriptions and Imagery

Provide concise item descriptions to inform customers about dishes, using sensory descriptors in item descriptions to attract customer interest, such as noting a sauce as rich or a dish as chargrilled rather than simply naming ingredients. Incorporate high-quality imagery to enhance the visual appeal of dishes, but use high-quality visuals sparingly to prevent a cluttered appearance. A handful of well-chosen, well-edited photos of signature dishes will do more for a board than a photo next to every single item.

### Prime Positioning

The top right corner of a menu board is prime visual space for specials, since this is typically where the eye lands first when scanning a display. Use it for the dish or offer you most want customers to notice, rather than filling it with a category customers would find anyway.

## Technical Considerations for Digital Displays

### Screen Positioning and Glare

Position menu board in areas free from glare and distractions, particularly away from direct sunlight through windows or reflective surfaces opposite the screen. Anti-glare displays help where full glare control isn’t possible, but positioning should always be the first line of defence rather than relying on the screen to compensate.

### Brightness and Ambient Light

Screen brightness should be set to suit ambient light levels, since a display calibrated for a dim interior will wash out under strong daylight, while one set too bright will feel harsh in a low-lit evening setting. Some commercial displays adjust automatically, which removes the need to manually recalibrate as the day progresses.

### Housing and Durability

Tamper-proof housings are worth specifying for any screen in a public-facing space, protecting the display from accidental knocks as well as deliberate interference during busy service.

### Orientation and Layout

They support both portrait and landscape orientations, and the choice should follow the content rather than the available wall space. A drinks menu with a long list of items often suits portrait, while a food menu with descriptions and imagery tends to read better in landscape.

### Power and Installation

Power outlets and cable concealment need planning before installation, not after. A screen with visible trailing cables undermines the polished look it’s meant to create, so routing power through the wall or a concealed channel should be part of the initial digital signage installation plan.

## Choosing a Menu Board Supplier in the UK

#### Experience and Portfolio

Prioritise suppliers with extensive experience in signage for hospitality specifically, since a company used to shopfronts or office signage won’t necessarily understand the demands of a working kitchen environment or a fast-moving service counter. Request portfolio examples from similar hospitality projects, ideally from restaurants, cafés or pubs comparable in size and style to your own.

### Design Support and Project Management

Ask about free design support and a dedicated project manager before committing. A single point of contact who understands your project from first enquiry through to installation saves considerable back and forth, particularly if you’re managing multiple screens or boards across one site.

### Delivery and Installation

Confirm UK-wide delivery and on-site installation services, especially if you’re ordering for more than one location. A supplier who only prints and ships leaves you to sort installation yourself, which adds cost and risk of a poor fit.

### Lead Times and Warranty

Obtain lead times and a written warranty before ordering. Clear timelines let you plan around a launch or refit date, and a proper warranty protects you if a display or printed board develops a fault shortly after installation.

## Ready to Get Your Menu Board Right the First Time?

At Manchester Signs Centre, we design, print and install indoor digital restaurant menu board for restaurants, cafés, pubs, bars and takeaways across Manchester and beyond. With extensive experience across hospitality signage, our team can create a menu board that solves your visibility problem and suits your space, whether that’s a single board for indoor use, an outdoor hanging sign, or multiple screens running across a busy site. From digital menu boards where prices and content can be updated instantly, to printed menus finished with protective inks and premium materials, we offer a full range of options to suit any style, budget and quantity.

Browse our work for inspiration or contact us to discuss your ideal menu board design, including layout, fonts and colours. Our in-house signage team handles everything from design and production to installation, delivering professional menu boards that are easy to update and built to showcase your food. Request a quote today and find the perfect solution for your business.