Tigerair Menu Summer 2016

Our studio, 3AD Group, has worked on previous issues, of both Tiger, and Scoot Menu, hence, was asked to pitch for the latest menu design. The catering service was managed by SATs Ltd, the chief ground-handling and in-flight catering service provider at Singapore Changi Airport. The catering on board Tigerair, and many other carriers, outsources their catering service to SATs to enjoy greater economies of scale and to focus on their main service, i.e, air travel.

The brief for the project was clear: the client requires a menu design that is inline with their branding. They will like to have a tabbed menu so that passengers and flight steward/stewardess can quickly refer to the required section of the menu. The images of the food items and advertisements were provided by the client, hence the art direction for the food photography and adverts are handled by other studios; the main focus of the project is on the layout and the design of the menu. Besides food, advertisement is also a core part of the menu design as it is an important source of income for the airline – the advertisements should be integrated seamlessly with other food images.

The menu design is based on the theme ‘Taste of Asia, in the skies’. Rich textures such as wood, fabric and paper(map) were included so that the menu appears tactile, giving the passenger a feeling of dining in a restaurant, rather than on a cramp airplane seat. On these surfaces, ingredients and spices were laid on it, to bring out the flavours of the culture, and to make the food appear ‘fresh’ rather than pre-packed. These subtle elements were meant to entice passengers into ordering the meals on board.

As the images of the food are shot at a front-facing angle, the images are floated above the surfaces, to draw a viewer’s attention to the photographs. The same treatment was applied to the advertisements.