The Fugitive Ferret
Website Design | Social Media | Graphic Design
The Fugitive Ferret is a locally-owned, independent Craft Bar and Bistro in North Lakes, established in 2022. I was honoured to work with the team to establish and maintain a digital image for the bar, including website design, media design and managing social media content. This project provided me with ample opportunities to grow both artistically and professionally, which can be seen in the development of the social media image over the past year.
The Project
I was placed into multiple roles for this project with The Fugitive Ferret. Initially, my roles were centralised on establishing an aesthetic image for the business, including website design and menu designs. After opening, I continued to manage the website and menu development, however, I am also now the social media manager. Let’s delve into the project!
The Website
The website was the first main task within this project. To create the website, I was provided with their chosen domain’s web editor - Crazy Domains. This tool provided an opportunity for easier designing for desktop to mobile formats.
The key element of this website was providing patrons with an easily accessible menu of all the food and drink options. Due to the wide variety of drink options available, it was determined that splitting the drink menus into separate pages allowed for easier navigation.
For example, one of our expected patrons would be a craft beer drinker. For this patron to easily find out what beers we provide they can navigate to the menu and then to the beer page.
On the beer page, we’ve got two main sections; “On Tap”, and “In the Fridge”. For the taps, as there are only six, we were able to expand this section to include images of the tap decals, which helps separate the text and provides clearer sectioning of the details. “In the Fridge” is separated into loose styled-based sections to assist beer drinkers in finding their preferred drink.
For the aesthetic aspect of the website, we chose to stick to the accent colours already used at the bar. The green wave header used throughout the website is linked to the mural displayed inside the venue.
The Menus
After developing the website, the next main task was to visualise that digital image into physical menus for patrons within the venue to use.
To continue the visual aesthetic, the fonts chosen were the same as the main logo, with ‘Smoothread’ as the main heading and ‘Times New Roman' for all other text. This consistency provides a unifying element between the otherwise varying menus.
The hierarchy for these menus was important in providing readability and understandability for users. Through bold and italics as well as positioning of elements to utilise negative space, the products are easily understandable and their details are easy to locate for each item. Within the beer and wine lists, the incorporation of images, not only benefits the hierarchy and spacing but also provides users with more understanding of the product they might purchase. For beer lovers, some pick based on can design; and for wine lovers, being able to see the colour of their wine might influence their final choice.
Due to the continuous changes to the drinks menu, especially the beers, it was chosen that there’d only be a couple of A4 copies of the beer and wine lists located near the bar. for the A5 food menus, we added a page with QR codes to the drinks pages on the website. These pdfs are also downloadable from the website.
The Socials
This was an unexpected role within the project, however, has become integral to the continuous management of the business’s digital image.
The business currently has both a Facebook page and an Instagram page. As Digital Media & Marketing Manager, I run most of the social media aspects of the business. From the initial photography and editing to captioning and scheduling posts, it’s part of the job. The manner of the posts is engaging and fun whilst still professional and informative of what is on offer currently.
Throughout this experience working on the socials I’ve not only noticed an improvement in my photography and graphic design skills, but even how I caption posts to engage users and promote patrons to try out our new products has vastly improved. The social media presence of The Fugitive Ferret matches the digital image previously created on the website and allows for a greater number of users to find the business and, hopefully, visit not only the website but the actual bar as well.
The Fugitive Ferret was one of my first professional projects I got to work on and I am immensely proud of how it turned out. This project definitely took time and a lot of learning to get where it is today. To watch my work actually be used by patrons is the greatest feeling. One of my favourite moments is when I’m working Front of House and someone comes up asking for a product saying “I saw it on your instagram yesterday,” it fills me with so much joy to know that my work is being seen and it’s working as intended.
Also, who could say no to working and taking photos with a stuffed Ferret.
