Project Description
Xiamen Cuisine is an illustrated menu project inspired by my hometown, designed to introduce traditional island dishes through warm visuals and inviting storytelling. The menu blends hand-drawn art with playful typography to reflect the city’s coastal charm and vibrant food culture.
Project Prototypes
My Role
As both the illustrator and designer, I led every stage of this project—from choosing which dishes to feature, to developing the visual language and layout of the menu. I wanted to share the food culture of Xiamen in a way that felt personal and transportive, using illustration to recreate the warmth and familiarity of local meals. Every drawing, from the seaweed jelly to the stuffed duck, was made to tell a story and spark curiosity.
The Challenges
The hardest part was balancing detailed food illustrations with a clear layout that could still function as a real menu. I had to consider hierarchy, color coordination, and the rhythm of spacing while keeping the illustrations vivid and engaging. It was also challenging to translate the sensory richness of real dishes—flavor, texture, cultural context—into visuals that felt just as rich on the page.
The Problem
Menus often reduce food to just names and prices, especially when translating cultural cuisine for broader audiences. But Xiamen’s food isn’t just about ingredients—it’s about mood, geography, and memory. The challenge was creating a design that captured the heart of the dishes while still being legible and usable as a menu format.
The Solution
To address this, the solution was to incorporate I used soft, beach-toned colors and hand-drawn textures to evoke Xiamen’s coastal feeling, pairing each dish with expressive illustrations and handwritten labels that feel friendly and nostalgic. The result is a menu that functions both as a design object and a cultural introduction—something that invites viewers not just to order food, but to imagine the place and stories behind each dish.