Changing the visual,
not the purpose

Pochawa Grill had already been using a photo-led menu. During the redevelopment, a new Head Chef joined the project after working in internationally recognised hotels. He introduced a different philosophy for how the menu should work.

Rather than showing every dish, he wanted customers to imagine the food. Photography would move to posters and other promotional materials, while the menu itself would become something people read instead of something they scanned visually.

At the same time, the team wanted to keep Korean dish names rather than replacing them with familiar English equivalents. The ambition was for customers to become familiar with those names over time, just as words like sushi, ramen, kimchi and matcha have become part of everyday English.

One proposal was to remove the dish descriptions altogether. I was the only person in the discussion approaching the menu from outside Korean culture.

Even though I grew up in Asia, I still couldn't understand many of the Korean dish names without additional context. That became the basis of my feedback.

The final menu kept concise descriptions beneath each dish. Customers no longer relied on photographs, but they still had enough information to understand what they were ordering. The visual solution had changed, but the menu still needed to perform the same job.

Different projects naturally lead to different visual solutions. I don't try to make every project look consistent. I try to make the design respond to what the project is trying to achieve.

When the intention changes, I expect the visual language to change with it. What stays consistent is the responsibility of the design: helping people understand enough to act, regardless of whether that happens through photography, typography, illustrations or written descriptions.