Design a Memphis-Style Restaurant Menu

Choose File → New and create a 1200 × 1600 pixel document with a White background. Click the Background row, set the foreground to cream #FFF1DC and choose Edit → Fill.

Add guides by clicking the rulers: click the top ruler at 60, 600 and 1140 for the outer margins and the centre line. Then click the left ruler at 740 and 1420 for the top and bottom of the menu cards.

Rename Layer 1 to Lilac Block. Drag a Rectangular Marquee from (0, 680) to the bottom of the canvas at x 540, fill it with lilac #B9A6F0, and press Cmd+D. Open its Layer effects and turn on a black Stroke of width 6. Letting the block bleed off the left and bottom edges makes it feel like part of a bigger print.

Add a new layer and name it Bacterio. Work in the top-left 160 × 160 corner of the canvas:

1. Choose the Brush, set Size 7, Hardness 100 and ink #161616.
2. Paint three short squiggles at different angles. Two full S-curves about 50–60 px long and one half-wave work well.
3. Add five dots of 8–14 px with small Elliptical Marquee fills.
4. Drag a Rectangular Marquee over exactly (0, 0) to (160, 160).

Keep marks away from the edges of the tile so nothing is cut when it repeats.

With the tile still selected, choose Edit → Define Pattern. Then press Cmd+A and Delete to clear the tile, and Cmd+D.

Select the lilac block's area again, from (0, 680) to (540, 1600). Choose Edit → Fill with Pattern…, pick the new 160 × 160 pattern and click Apply.

The pattern goes on its own Bacterio layer above the lilac block, not on the block itself. Pattern Fill replaces the pixels inside the selection with the tile, so the transparent parts of the tile would punch holes in the lilac. On a separate layer, the squiggles sit on top of the colour.

Click Bacterio and use New Group three times to make Shapes, Menu and Title groups, with Title at the top. Click Shapes and add three layers inside it:

• Mint Circle: an Elliptical Marquee from (740, 10), 520 × 520, filled with mint #6FDCC0. It runs off the right edge.
• Pink Quarter: a Lasso from the top-left corner around a 430 px arc, filled with hot pink #FF5FA2.
• Mustard Triangle: the Shape tool with Polygon, Sides 3 and a mustard fill. Shapes draw from the centre, so drag from (600, 150) to (682, 222).

Big, flat, overlapping primitives are the heart of Memphis. Don't outline them; they should read like cut paper.

Add a Checker layer. Fill a 40 × 40 white square at (0, 0), then fill two 20 × 20 ink squares at (0, 0) and (20, 20). Select the 40 × 40 square, Define Pattern, and clear the layer.

Lasso a 250 px quarter circle into the bottom-right corner and choose Edit → Fill with Pattern… with the checker tile. Give it the same 6 px black Stroke. On a Mint Half layer, lasso a 120 px half circle sitting on the bottom edge at x 740 and fill it mint.

Click the Title group and choose the Text tool:

1. Choose Rammetto One, size 120, ink #161616.
2. Click in the empty canvas and type WAFFLE. Press Tab to commit.
3. Click Title again, then click lower down and type MAMBO.
4. With the Move tool, stack them: WAFFLE at about y 225, MAMBO at y 344, with MAMBO indented about 30 px.

Give both layers a Drop Shadow in cobalt #2C4BD1 with Offset X 10, Offset Y 10, Blur 0 and Opacity 100. A hard, coloured shadow is a classic 80s lift. Finally, drag the mustard triangle down so its point tucks behind the top of WAFFLE, which ties the shapes to the type.

Open the Text panel and set Letter spacing to 2. Choose Space Mono Bold at 22 and type BELGIAN WAFFLES · MALTS · LATE-NIGHT GROOVES (paste it if the · characters don't come through). Move it so its left edge lines up with WAFFLE at x 93, about 40 px under MAMBO.

Click Mint Half and add a New Group called Waffle. Inside it:

1. On a Waffle Disc layer, fill a 320 × 320 circle at (830, 120) with mustard.
2. On a Pockets layer, fill a 32 × 32 square at (7, 7) with toasted brown #C9811A. Select (0, 0)–(46, 46) and Define Pattern, then clear the layer.
3. Marquee (760, 50) to (1200, 510) and Fill with Pattern… with the 46 px tile.
4. Switch to the Move tool, drag the rotation handle outside the top-right corner about 22°, then press Cmd+D to commit.

Rotating the grid keeps it from looking like graph paper.

Draw an Elliptical Marquee from (848, 138), 284 × 284, just inside the disc. Choose Select → Inverse and press Delete. Deselect, then Layer → Merge Down the pockets into Waffle Disc.

Add three more layers above the disc:

• Syrup: lasso a wavy pink blob over the upper half, with three finger-shaped drips. Round each drip with a small circle fill.
• Butter: lasso a 68 px square rotated −14° in pale yellow #FFF3B0.
• Blueberries: three cobalt circles of 30–40 px in the lower right.

Give all four layers a black Stroke of width 7. One consistent outline weight makes the illustration read as a single sticker.

Add a Sprinkle layer and build one pink capsule, 64 × 18: a rectangle plus a circle fill at each end. Marquee it and press Cmd+C. Then rotate the original about 40° with the Move tool and press Cmd+D.

For each extra sprinkle:

1. Press Cmd+V.
2. Drag it with the Move tool to a spot around the waffle.
3. Marquee it, rotate it to a new angle, and press Cmd+D.
4. Recolour it with a Color Overlay effect in cobalt, cream, mustard or ink.

Five copies around the rim is plenty. Scattered confetti is very Memphis, but it looks timid if it spreads over the whole page.

Click Mint Half, add a Squiggles layer and choose the Brush at Size 18, Hardness 100. Paint one wide black wave from about (96, 600) to (436, 600). Hold the shape steady by moving in small, even steps. At Size 15 in cobalt, paint a zigzag of eight 42 px segments, starting at (640, 640).

Click the Menu group and add a Left Card layer. Fill a white rectangle from (60, 740), 520 × 680. That puts its top and bottom on your two horizontal guides. Give it:

• A black Stroke of width 6.
• A black Drop Shadow with Offset X 14, Offset Y 14, Blur 0 and Opacity 100.

Add Right Card at (620, 740), the same size with the same effects. Matching tops, bottoms and shadows across both cards is what makes a busy Memphis page still feel designed.

Add a Card Details layer and fill:

• A mustard band, 520 × 92, at the top of the left card.
• A pink band, 520 × 92, at the top of the right card.
• A 6 px ink rule under each band.
• A black 64 px footer band along the bottom of the right card, from y 1356.
• A 460 × 44 pink pill on the left card at (90, 1348). Build it from a rectangle plus a circle at each end.

Put WAFFLES and SHAKES & SIPS in the bands in Rammetto One 46, 30 px in from the card edge and centred vertically in the band.

For the items, use area text, dragging a text box instead of clicking. Each column is one layer, so the rows stay perfectly spaced. Set Line height 1, and use Paragraph spacing to control the gap between items:

• Prices: Rammetto One 28, Align right, paragraph spacing 72, in a 100 px box ending at the card's inner edge.
• Descriptions: DM Mono 18 in plum #3A3340, paragraph spacing 82, starting 36 px below the prices.
• Names: Archivo Black 28, paragraph spacing 72, starting at the same y as the prices.

Make them in that order: prices, descriptions, then names. A text click or drag that lands inside an existing text box edits it instead of starting a new layer, so each new box should start in space that no text covers yet.

Finish with the footer, 88 SQUIGGLE AVE · OPEN TIL 2AM, in Space Mono Bold 20, cream, centred in the black band. Then add ADD-ONS +2 · bacon · nutella · sprinkles in Space Mono Bold 16, centred in the pink pill.

Build the badge above Card Details:

1. On a Badge layer, fill a 150 px cobalt circle.
2. On a Badge Ring layer, fill a 128 px mustard circle centred on it. Choose Select → Shrink… 5 and press Delete to leave a ring, then Merge Down.
3. Type SINCE (Space Mono Bold 22, tracking 2) and 1986 (Rammetto One 36) in cream in empty space. Move them onto the badge, Rasterize each, and Merge Down twice into Badge.
4. Marquee the badge, rotate it 14° with the Move tool, and press Cmd+D.

Park it above the top-right corner of the Shakes card, with at least 15 px of clear space above the band.

Click the Background row and choose Filter → Add Noise…. Set Amount 8, Mono and Gaussian, and click Apply. The grain is subtle, but it takes the digital flatness off the cream so the menu feels printed.

Step back and look for near-misses: things that almost touch read as mistakes. In this piece that meant four fixes:

• Badge: moved up so it clears the Shakes card instead of grazing its corner.
• Bacterio pattern: marqueed the pattern layer from x 522 to the block's edge and pressed Delete, so no squiggle is sliced by the outline.
• Mint half circle: slid 60 px left so it tucks under the card shadows.
• MAMBO: nudged 12 px left so the O clears the mint circle.

Choose View → Show Guides to hide the guides. Use File → Quick Export PNG for the image and File → Save Project for an editable .lopsy file with every group and effect intact.

To make your own Memphis piece, keep these rules:

• Flat colours that clash on purpose.
• At least one black-and-white pattern.
• Big geometric primitives that overlap the content.
• One outline weight.
• Hard shadows with zero blur.