Design Challenge
Blackbox Sandwiches
Brand identity, website, menu system, service flow, and customer experience design for a real restaurant.
Role: Co-owner / Brand, service, web, and menu designer
Timeline: 2025–ongoing
Scope: Brand identity, website, menu system, catering materials, packaging, kitchen workflow, service flow, and dining experience
Outcomes: 100 health inspection score, break-even within 7 months, 5.0 Google rating
Project Context
Blackbox Sandwiches is a real restaurant in Morganton, North Carolina. As a co-owner, I helped design the restaurant as a full customer and service experience, not just a visual brand. My work included the logo and brand identity, website, menu system, catering materials, packaging, kitchen workflow, dining room layout, and systems for consistent food production.
The brand was designed to feel bold and striking, matching the flavor and personality of the sandwiches. I wanted the visual identity to feel memorable, energetic, and a little unexpected while still being clear and functional for customers.
Behind the scenes, I developed systems for standardized recipes, portioning, product rotation, clean workspaces, staff roles, and line flow so the team could work efficiently and consistently. Customer experience decisions — online ordering, quick menu access, compostable insulating wrap, recyclable black boxes and bags, a self-serve to-go station, and flexible dining room seating — were designed to make the restaurant easier to use for both customers and staff.
Brand Identity
Bold logo, color, and visual tone designed to match the intensity of the sandwiches.
Packaging & Pickup
Compostable wrap, recyclable boxes, branded stickers, bags, and to-go station designed for speed and food quality.
Goal: Create a bold, memorable brand that matched the intensity of the sandwiches and stood out from softer, more traditional café branding.
What I designed: Logo, color palette, typography direction, visual tone, website styling, menu styling, stickers/packaging direction, and interior aesthetic.
The challenge was to create a restaurant experience that felt bold and memorable while functioning efficiently enough to support a new business.
The system needed to help Blackbox break even within the first year while working within a lean startup budget.
Every design decision had to support customers, staff, food quality, speed of service, and brand recognition at the same time, from reading the menu and ordering online to moving through the line, packaging food, seating groups, and maintaining consistency in the kitchen.
Experience System
Menu & Ordering
Website, menu, catering menu, and online ordering structured for quick decision-making.
Dining Space & Atmosphere
Kitchen and dining room layout, flexible seating, local art, prints, and brand environment.
Brand Identity
I designed the alligator sandwich mark to feel funky, bold, and instantly memorable. The alligator has a personal connection to the business, but it also fits the restaurant’s playful, high-impact personality and helps create a brand that stands out.
The palette pairs black and cream with sharp orange, blue, and yellow accents, creating a visual system that feels bold, energetic, and recognizable across digital, print, packaging, and the dining room.
Menu & Ordering
Goal: Design a clear, easy-to-read menu system that helps customers make quick decisions across dine-in, takeout, online ordering, and catering. The menu needed to be intuitively grouped, visually structured, and flexible enough to support both individual orders and larger catering needs.
What I designed: Main menu, catering menu, website menu access, online ordering entry points, sandwich categories, pricing hierarchy, dietary markers, and catering packages designed for easy group ordering.
The front of the menu lists hot sandwiches, with our three most popular options placed at the top to give customers an easy starting point. Each item follows a consistent structure — name, price, description, bread type, and dietary markers — so customers can scan quickly for easy decision-making.
The catering menu is structured for customers ordering for groups, offices, and events. Boxed lunches, platters, add-ons, and an office sampler provide clear starting points, allowing customers to order confidently without having to build every detail from scratch.
Kitchen Workflow
Goal: Build a kitchen system that made sandwich production consistent, trainable, efficient, and clean during daily service.
What I designed: Standardized component recipes, scaled batch recipes, pre-portioned proteins and mains, ingredient placement, hot/cold make-line flow, cooler rotation system, prep container organization, packaging station flow, and staff handoffs.
Goal: Create a pickup and packaging system that supported speed, brand consistency, food quality, and ease of use for both guests and staff.
What I designed: Black takeout boxes, branded stickers, a labeling system, compostable wraps/cutlery/straws, recyclable bags and containers, a self-serve to-go station, and a pickup flow near the register.
Kitchen Workflow
Recipes, portioning, product rotation, staffing, and line systems built for consistency.
The visual identity extended into the physical space through bold color, local art, funky prints, and high-contrast details. The goal was to make the dining room feel energetic, recognizable, and connected to the food.
The back menu separates cold sandwiches, kids items, sides, substitutions, hours, and social information into clear sections. This keeps secondary options easy to find without competing with the main hot sandwich menu, helping customers compare choices and understand add-ons quickly.
The website gives customers three direct entry points — view the menu, request catering, or order online. The goal was to reduce friction and make the most common customer actions visible immediately.
I designed the kitchen workflow to support consistent, trainable, and efficient sandwich production during daily service. Component recipes were standardized so staff could reproduce the same product with little to no training, and main ingredients were pre-portioned to reduce guesswork and keep sandwiches consistent.
The make-line was organized into two functional zones: hot-side ingredients before the panini press and cold-side ingredients after pressing. The flow moved from right to left, starting with bread and hot components, then through sauces, tomatoes, and lettuce, and ending at the packaging or tray station. This reduced unnecessary movement and made the process easier to follow during rushes.
Storage and prep systems supported the same logic. Coolers were organized with older product in front, newer product behind, and “use first” stickers to support rotation. Recipes were also scaled to fit specific container sizes, helping prep stay consistent, organized, and easier to store.
Kitchen line flow: Bread + hot ingredients on the right side of the cooler → press → cold ingredients on the left side of the cooler → plating / packaging on the left of the press.
Packaging & Pickup
Black boxes and branded stickers extended the visual identity into takeout orders while creating a consistent labeling and handoff system for staff.
Dining Space & Atmosphere
Goal: Create a small dining space that felt bold, welcoming, and memorable while still supporting clear ordering, flexible seating, and easy movement.
What I designed: Dining room layout, custom tables, bar-style wall seating, group seating, entry/order flow, color palette, plant-filled atmosphere, local vendor signage, local art, funky prints, and brand details throughout the space.
A long wall table was built specifically for the space and finished with two logos spray-painted on top, turning a functional seating surface into a branded design detail.
Outcomes & Reflection
7 months
Reached break-even within the first year goal
The restaurant met its primary business and experience goals: operating within a lean startup budget, reaching break-even within the first year, maintaining a 100 health inspection score across three inspections, and earning a 5.0 Google rating. The design systems supported consistency across the brand, kitchen workflow, packaging, service flow, and dining experience.
I designed the packaging and pickup system to make the final handoff feel organized, branded, and easy to use. Black takeout boxes were chosen to fit the visual identity, while branded stickers created a simple labeling system for completed orders.
The to-go station was placed where both guests and register staff could access it easily, reducing extra steps during service. Compostable wraps, cutlery, and straws supported a lower-waste approach, while recyclable boxes, bags, and other materials kept the packaging system practical for daily restaurant use.
I designed the dining room around the constraints of a small space. The ordering point was placed near the entrance for clear customer flow, and the seating layout used custom-built tables to support bar-style seating, two-person seating, and small groups while keeping pathways open.
The atmosphere extended the Blackbox identity through bold color, handmade furniture, plants, local art, funky prints, vendor signage, and custom details. Orange ceilings, a black interior wall, light blue trim, and simple wood-and-epoxy surfaces helped the space feel memorable while still functional for daily service.
This section of the dining room shows the mix of bar seating, orange chairs, funky prints, and a handmade goose table. The goal was to make each part of the small space feel intentional, useful, and visually connected to the brand.
100
Health inspection score
5.0 stars
Google rating
If I were doing this again, I would build more pre-opening hype and brand awareness before launch. The experience system was strong once customers entered the restaurant, but a stronger marketing strategy could have created earlier momentum and made the opening more visible in the local community.