Tucked away down one of Melbourne’s many laneways you’ll find one of the few establishments in town that specialises in serving up bagels. But Manchester Press wasn’t always a place where you could get yourself a ’12 hour roasted pulled pork sesame bagel with lettuce, BBQ sauce and home made appleslaw’ and a hot cup of coffee.
It was, as its name implies, a print shop – a letterpress print shop to be exact. Which made it a logical decision and a perfect fit for us to design their new menus. The brief was to create a menu that was easy to follow, simple to understand and reflected the venue.
The production involved laying down an initial pass of blue ink perfectly crisp and clean on KW Doggett’s Buffalo Board. After the first run, we disfigured the plate with a box cutter, a screw driver and a fistful of steel wool. The second pass was printed in red ink with the roughed up plate, just a little off register.
The result is a menu that is legible where it needs to be but rough and ready around the edges to invoke its history.