Last summer, I got the really fun and exciting opportunity to design some chalkboard menus for Twenty Two, a local juice and smoothie bar located in the Indianapolis City Market. I was contacted over Instagram by an acquaintance from my hometown who owns the juice bar with her husband and I was all-in immediately. I SO enjoy playing with typography and bright colors so this project was truly a pleasure to work on, and I am very grateful for local businesses who hire local artists to do work like this.
They already had the boards made, which was great because I wanted to get right to the fun part. They were all pretty large—the smallest was around 3'x4' I believe. They wouldn't have been terribly difficult to construct, just some plywood boards screwed on to a simple wood frame and then painted them with black chalkboard paint. (Here is a good tutorial on how to make your own chalkboard menu from the Happy Housie blog)
I began by creating some sketches to plan and organize the layout of the boards, and then sent those to the business owners for their approval.
No matter what I'm working on, a sketching plans out—even if it's just a loose pencil sketch—can cut down on a lot of headaches later and will make the end result so much nicer. I know this and still find myself jumping in without sketching. Regret it every time.
I decided on these ChalkOla markers in the Earth Color Series for the majority of the work. I bought them on Amazon and they were absolutely perfect. Went on smooth and opaque and never clogged. I also used another brand of markers that were provided by the owners of Twenty Two called Blami Chalk. I only used them for the brighter colors when I really wanted things to pop. One thing I will say is that these markers are not the easiest to erase. Which I guess could be a good thing if you want it to last a long time. I wouldn't recommend chalk markers for something you want to change often. When I needed to erase anything, I dipped the tip of an old washcloth in water and wiped it (okay scrubbed it) off. Learn from my mistakes and don't use damp paper towels to wipe the chalk marker off the board, because little white bits of paper towel will be sandpapered off and it's super obnoxious. It's a good idea to test an area of your chalkboard first—making a small mark, letting it dry, and then erasing it—just to get a feel for how scratchy the board is and what it will take to remove a mark completely.
Then I spread out an old sheet on my floor and got to work. I started by measuring the border, drawing the center line, and laying out the lines for the text with a ruler and a white charcoal pencil (easier to erase than graphite pencil). I did all of the basic sketching of where things were going to go with a white charcoal pencil. Definitely recommended that tool. It's cheap and comes in so handy. And then I finally got to use these addictively satisfying chalk markers.
And here's the first menu board completed! I decided to change the placement of the illustrations, and I think that was the right choice for this.
I would so so so LOVE to create more of these, so if you're in the Indianapolis area and want some sweet sweet chalkboard menus for your home or business, PAH-LEASE reach out to me! And if you're making your own chalkboard menus, I would love to help if you have any questions. Send me a message!
