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The 3 Cardinal Rules of Food Website Design (ft. Jamaica Food and Drink Festival)

cardinal rules of food websites Having a few food website designs under our belt, we decided to share some key elements that make these sites truly stand out. If you’re thinking about creating a website dedicated to food, be sure to keep these three cardinal rules in mind:

1. A few high-quality food photos

JA-Food-and-Drink-Home-ii We’re not talking about a couple snaps with your point-and-shoot camera here. We’re referring to professionally taken images by a photographer specifically experienced in food photography. Why is that so important, you may ask? Because a lot of expertise goes into food photography. You go through a lot of trouble to make your food look delicious and appetizing so you certainly want that to transfer in your photos. A professional will have the right camera and equipment, and know the right angles and lighting techniques, to take photos you couldn’t possibly capture, even with your iPhone 6S. With such vibrant imagery, you’ll only need a few large, bold photos to make your site really stand out. Pick the best ones and make them the centre of attention. Not sure you should spring for high quality photography right now? If your site is for a restaurant – we highly recommend you get shots of your own food taken professionally. However, if you are a food blogger or you plan to do this long term, you can probably get away initially with using some free stock photos (search “food” for a wide array of options) while learning how to take great food pics on your own and edit them with free online tools like PicMonkey.

2. Bold headlines with unique fonts

Ja Food and Drink Fonts If there is ever a time to use bold, stand-out fonts in web design, it’s with food photography. The perfect food-font pairing goes a long way in communicating the atmosphere of your restaurant, the taste of your cuisine or the theme of your event. On the Jamaica Food and Drink Festival website, you’ll notice that the script font choice on the About Page (pictured above) boldly declares sophistication and class. In the image below, however, the font is very playful and laid back, just like the feeling you get from having a tropical-flavoured This Is Really Great Yogurt. really-great-yogurt And here’s another example from the CB Foods website we did recently, with a bold, grunge font: CB-BadDawg Copy text (descriptions and paragraphs) should ideally be kept formal and simple, for easy reading, but feel free to go a little wild and find the header font that perfectly matches the tone of your brand. You can find great, professional quality display fonts on Creative Market, and some free ones on DaFont.

3. Minimal, yet highly descriptive text

ja food and drink copy On a food website, if your photos are the main course, your headlines would be the glass of wine you pair it with, and your text content would be dessert – short and sweet, just enough to seal the deal and confirm that this was, in fact, a scrumptious meal. See what we did there? Now that your delicious food has captured the attention of your visitor, it’s time to close the sale. Use all the descriptive words you can think of to confirm their thoughts as they stare at your succulent dishes and tantalizing beverages. Trade in “taste a variety of pork dishes” for the more appealing alternative “…savour the likes of crispy pork belly, ribs smothered in a secret sauce, chops grilled to perfection topped off with the perfect sides and desserts with a dangerous porcine twist.” Use as many words as you need to get the point across and give the necessary information, then no more. Let your cuisine say the rest. — As we hinted above, our team at Chrysalis designed the Jamaica Food and Drink Festival website, and, as you can tell, we used these cardinal rules as our guide. If you sell food products, own a restaurant, or have a food-related event coming up, give us a call and we’ll be happy to help you create the perfect website and graphics to get your food the attention it deserves.