Set with Pantones

Here are my finalised set designs with the pantones as promised.

I'll blog my final characters with their pantones and finalised bios in the next post.

Set Dev. and Design and a Little Book Idea

I have been working on my set design recently and have finalised some designs of the exterior of the building where the whole of the series will be taking place.  I am still yet to design the interior but that will come shortly.


Here are my initial designs of perspective views.

I liked the look of the bottom one but took the element of the window covers from the top right one for my final design. 
With this in mind I drew up a design from the front face of the restaurant/diner, and added a few more interesting elements; like the car for the drive thru area of the restaurant. a bit more detail on the roof decorations and a sign.

I also added the characters to get an idea of scale.


With this done I thought it looked a little bland and very small, so I added some more to the building along with a plan from above to see what kind of area it might take up.

I was happy with these designs so I added some colour and tidied the whole image up to make it look more professional.

I haven't finished the pantones for these yet but I will today and get them uploaded, I just wanted to get some work up as I haven't posted for a short while.


The set design also gave me an idea for my book cover, it needs more detail in the background but I feel it would suit quite well if I could get the shape of it cut out instead of just having a plain A4 book.

Interiors 18.10.11 - 22.10.11

Looking more into the set design aspect of my project I have researched into how current popular fast food chains layout their restaurants. I found a reoccurring theme of curves; they seem to be very 'in' at the moment in the fast food world! I plan to incorporate some of these into my designs, to make the setting more believable and look as if I have actually paid attention to current trends and existing examples of fast food restaurants.


I found some example images of blue prints showing the general layout of some restaurants and some images showing current interiors and the curved theme I spoke about earlier.

Order Points - 18.10.11 - 22.10.11

Here are the order points I mentioned in the last post.

They are laid out very systematically in straight lines for ease of access for the customers, with large lit displays above the tills that show the menu.  The advantage of this is so the customers can see from the back of any queues and speed up the ordering process, enabling the restaurant to remain 'fast'.

Kitchens - 18.10.11 - 22.10.11

Here's some research I did last week into the kitchens and preparation areas at the back of fast food restaurants.

The main thing I noticed was that everything is made from stainless steel. This is due to bacteria and hygiene regulations, the stainless steel is easy to clean and as it says in its name, it is stainless to things don't stick to it.

There are also a lot of computer screens in the back, this is to make sure that none of the orders are missed and they all go through correctly. I found that the floors are normally tiled or vinyl, this is again due to cleanliness as it is easier to keep clean and again to comply with hygiene regulations.

You'll notice as well that the food preparation area is lined up in a systematic way to keep things running smoothly, for example the buns, burgers, lettuce and sauces.

I also did some research into the order counters, seating areas and general layout of the restaurants during the week. I'll put these up in the next post.

Fast Food Restaurants

So again it's been quite a long time since I posted anything on here, arguing over mine and Mat's 3 minute project starts to take over your life!


Anyhoo...I have done some research into existing fast food restaurant exteriors to see how they lay them out and to see things like colour schemes and why they use them. Now I remember hearing that red and yellow make you hungry...I thinks that's why a certain large fast food chain use those 2 as their only logo colours!


I am going to do some real research into that theory and see if I can apply it in someway to my own design and logos for the restaurant.


There is a little drive thru research too as my restaurant is going to have one I thought it was pretty necessary.

I like the below selection of buildings, the top right and bottom middle in particular, with the slanted rim around the roof and the name standing on top.

Next I'm going to be looking at the interiors of the buildings, the seating area, tills and kitchen area at the back.