diner menus

I have been a long time fan of diner menus. I am from Philadelphia and up north diners are a common meeting place and growing up I have spent a lot of time in them. People make fun of the menus there all the time. Everyday people tease at how intense or often times overly themed they are. Designers insult the quality of the layout and the overuse of certain faces or imagery. I love them. I think that diner menus are some of the greatest examples of functional design that are available. People insult them for how poorly designed they are, but what isn't working about the design? I say that it gets the job done and therefor is good design. Deeper into the development of a menu I find that they are probably either created or supervised by the owner of the diner itself. Thus an uneducated, in the area of design, person is creating a piece of design. However, this piece of design is essential to the success of their business. They are trying their hardest to create a piece of design that will sell their food. It works...people buy food at diners. And it works so well because the people who are eating at diners, like the person who designed the menu itself, are uneducated in the field of design. They aren't sitting down and thinking about how silly the typefaces are or how inconsistent one page is from another, they are thinking about how good the burger looks in the picture and how delicious it sounds in the description. People are too hard on things that have been working well for years. The menu serves its purpose and targets its correct audience in such a entirely pure way that wouldn't be nearly as effective if imitated by an educated designer.

(i plan on making an amazing diner menu page)