The Serial Butchery is an upscale, themed restaurant on wheels. This food truck nestled in the back of a nondescript van features food combinations inspired by notorious serial killers throughout history. The menu is divided into four distinct experiences that customers can enjoy. While inspecting the menu you may discover various messages and references that reveal certain clues. That is, if you can even get your hands on it. The goal of all this subterfuge is to truly immerse the customer in a memorable experience.

A collection of images detailing the menu. It comes in a plastic evidence bag and contains red vellum pages that obscure information for added effect.

PROCESS

My inspirations for this restaurant concept were Dexter and American Psycho. I’ve long had a fascination with unsolved crimes, and I knew I wanted to impliment this interest in a project, but constructing it in a way that didn’t kill the appetite was a challenge. I came to the conclusion that presenting it as white and surgical, much like in my inspirations, was the ideal solution. As a result, the idea to use autopsy reports in the menu came very quickly. This led me to think about what makes unsolved murders so fascinating: the mystery. I delved deep into the copy of the menu to include hidden messages and codes, and added red vellum to allow viewers to actively uncover clues. When I was finally given the idea to change it from a brick and mortar store to a traveling van, the mystery was complete.

Two initial name and logo ideas. It took many iterations before I finalized the name.

Once I decided on the name a made a few unsuccessful explorations before I reached the final logos below.

The Serial Butchery has three main logos: one wordmark and two logomarks. Either of the logomarks can also be used in conjunction with the main wordmark.

It also contains four logomarks for the four killers represented in the menu. From left to right:  Jeffrey Dahmer, Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer, and the Cleveland Torso Murderer