The Lately Bar Menu

The Lately was a nostalgia themed bar in the meatpacking district of New York City, which featured pinball machines, VHS tape lined walls, and other 80’s-90s paraphernalia. I joined the team when they were in the process of rebranding and opening a kitchen. I was tasked with cementing their branding, choosing colors and fonts to fit their aesthetic, creating menus and creating digital flyer templates for social media. While speaking with my clients they told me their biggest headache with the temporary menus they had was keeping them clean while still being able to easily update their offerings. Paper menus were soaked at the bar, laminated menus couldn’t be switched out and traditional booklet menus “ruined the vibe”. I drew inspiration from the VHS walls and designed a insert for them. They could easily switch them out, and the plastic cases were easily wiped down. The color and design of the menus was inspired by the line art on the outside of the building, and the neon sign adorned entryway. To announce the menu I decided to use classic TV imagery for the Instagram story. The story starts with a color test card glitching with tv test tone to gather attention. I then used images I took of the new items in the bar followed by the special offer of the night. Throughout I used a glitch animation as well as a few nostalgic bar clips. The entire clip was adjusted to fit onto one Instagram story so it could be shared with the bar’s promoters more easily.  Click each image to view a larger image.