Food Truck Design: Ideas to Attract Your Customers
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Be it our random mid-workday hunger pangs or sudden midday cravings, we all go hunting for a quick way to grab a delicious something on the go. This is where food trucks come as a blessing in disguise. Or should we say, a blessing on wheels? Loaded with flavoursome street food and all the right cooking equipment to serve you swiftly, food trucks are every foodie’s saving grace. It also comes to light that food truck owners are switching to buses or vans due to easier mobility and cost-effectiveness as compared to trucks. This gives food truck owners more of a reason to expand on their creativity and work on their visual identity aka their food truck layout to attract customers.
Why should you opt for food trucks and how do you gain customers?
Whether you want to sell delicious street food at the corner of your street or cater to the local fair, your food truck design game needs to be top-notch in order to enhance customer experience and sell out your menu. Before setting up your own food truck, there are a few factors you need to consider to ensure success. With a creative brand identity that includes catchy design elements, Your food truck design can be widely innovative as creativity knows no boundaries.
Striking Food Truck Design
Setting up your own food truck is definitely simpler than setting up a restaurant. This is simply because food trucks save you the hassle of having to look for a brick and mortar residence for your establishment. All you need to do to set up your food truck business is acquire a truck (an old utility truck, for instance) and get permission from your local government. The rest of the process is just how creative you can get! Especially when it’s your food truck business, you have absolute creative freedom to design your custom food trucks and choose your food truck layout. Food trucks need to tactfully grasp the attention of passersby and this can be achieved by 2 main factors – a stellar menu and an eye catching truck wrap.
Here are some points and ideas to keep in mind if you are looking to start your very own food truck business.
Building a solid brand identity
It is no big secret that a pivotal selling point for every establishment is its branding and personality. Hence, it is important to build an identity that is well executed and etches itself in the customer’s mind. This is possible through the inculcation of bright colors, eye catching visuals, a fun logo and catchy brand elements in your truck design. Apart from this, a short but snappy tagline also adds points to your food truck’s identity.
Personalization is key
Adding a personal touch to your brand is a sign of involvement, dedication and enables the customers to relate to your brand. When it comes to food truck design, this personalization can be anything from a handwritten menu, good design elements or an attractive counter space design. You can also add a hint of personalization by putting up a small wall where customers can share their thought/experiences in your food truck on Post-Its or simply write on it with Sharpies.
Compiling a solid team
What is an establishment without an amicable and efficient team? Your team can make the world of difference for your brand. Before you start your food truck business, make sure you have a solid team who’s idea and values align with yours. Do your share of research and conduct interviews to make sure you know who you are hiring. Be it a delicious menu, marketing strategies or their style of work, make sure you hire people with similar mindsets.
Now, coming to the design aspect
Your food truck design singlehandedly possesses the power of making customers walk up to your food truck for a glance. You have an instant conversion if your food truck’s design is eye catching. You can acquire a good food truck design through numerous ways such as hiring professional design services, opting for the services of freelance graphic designers, getting inspiration from art (book covers, other food trucks, your favourite artists, etc) or you can even try a hand at designing them yourself. Either way, an amazing food truck design adds big points to your food truck’s pos system. Your food truck layout also has to be in such a way that customers gain easy access to the menu and can collect their food without hassle.
Here are 20 unique food truck design examples from food trucks all over the world that you can use to kickstart your food truck business. These designs can be used as a source of inspiration as well as a hub for idea brainstorming sessions.
Curry Up Now, San Francisco
One of our personal favourites, Curry Up Now is a food truck based in San Francisco, USA that offers mouth-watering Indian street food in San Francisco. Complete with splash of bright colors, a Paisley themed design element and to top it all off with, they’ve made their logo look like it was on bicycle wheels.
Curry Up Now’s branding is a fitting example of how food truck design plays a pivotal role in gaining customers. From 2009, Curry Up Now has expanded to 4 food trucks, five brick and mortar restaurants and a catering business.
Here are some images of Curry Up Now’s food truck and their impeccable branding.
Heisser Hobel, Berlin, Germany
Known for their unmatchable accuracy and taste for South Germany’s dish “Kässpätzle”, the Heisser Hobel food truck in Germany has taken the minimalistic and subtle approach to food truck design.
The Heisser Hobel food truck has added a hint of personalization through their handwriten chalk menus and have used a subtle, pale blue for their truck. The whole design approach to this food truck is simple yet pleasant on the eyes.
Papadums Indian Joint, Trinidad and Tobago
The Papadums food truck in Trinidad and Tobago serves authentic Indian food on wheels. They’ve inculcated a fresh use of bright colors and stand out in terms of design elements.
They are well known for their food truck design and of course, their outstanding food along with the freshest ingredients.
Toasta, Melbourne, Australia
The Toasta food truck in Melbourne, Australia makes the most delicious sandwiches amongst other dishes. When the founder first laid eyes on the utility truck that was to become the terrific Toasta food truck, it was covered with red dust due to being located in the northern territory. Rebecca Feingold (Founder of Toasta) took it upon herself to come up with a stellar transformation for the truck and we think its safe to say she did a promising job.
When it comes to design, Toasta’s food truck design is adorable. They have inculcated the use of tiny cartoon characters in their truck, which is sure to grab the attention of the younger customers. Check out some van wrapping ideas.
Coy Sushi, Vietnam
One of our favourites, the Coy Sushi food truck in Vietnam makes the best out of their compact and cute food truck. With colourful sushi graphics and and a cleverly designed logo that makes the “O” in Coy look like a bar of sushi, this food truck really stands out with their design.
Tunein Taco Truck
The Tunein Taco Truck caters to music festivals such as Bumbershoot, SXSW, The New Orleans Jazz fest and so on. The award winning truck wrap for Tunein was created by Dyanna, a designer. The design is extremely quirky and highly illustrative with its use of artwork such as tigers, a skull and more inventive elements.
Sweetery Food Truck, NYC
The Sweetery food truck in NYC uses a vibrant teal for the its truck wrap and spices it up using striking texts all around. They are impossible to miss even amidst the bustling roads of New York City.
Maximus/Minimus, Seattle
The Maximus/Minimus food truck is based in Seattle, Washington. They are a force to be reckoned with along with their absolutely ridiculous yet amazing truck design. Their food truck resembles a giant pig. Yes, you heard that right. We can’t imagine the amount of effort that went into the remodeling of this food truck but Kurt Beecher Dammeier has certainly outdone himself on the ideas front. Here are some images so you can see the Maximus/Minimus pig in all its glory!
The Gastro Bomber, Mansfield, Texas
The Gastro Bomber is a food truck based in Texas. They are a gourmet food truck that is known for their pub style food and their creative truck design. Their front portion of their food truck is designed to look like a shark and they use bright red text to show off their brand name. See for yourself! You can also find small business packaging ideas.
Still no luck in finding inspo? Here are some alternative design options
Hire a freelance designer
Hiring a freelance graphic designer is a cost effective option to procure good food truck design options. You can look for freelance designers on various online portals or even ask for referrals. Freelancers are easy to work with since they work on flexible timings and will be available to assist you with any required changes. The process is simpler, as opposed to going through agencies and such. Check out the social media guidelines for boosting your business in social media platforms.
Opt for a design agency
Opting for a professional design agency is sure to smoothen the process of landing on a perfect food truck design. Professional design agencies are equipped to offer you top-notch graphic design services at fixed rates and multiple benefits.
This is where we the folks at All Time Design come into the picture. At All Time Design, we offer you subscription-based graphic design services. We offer a plethora of design services and can be your go-to for all things design. Some of the features offered by All Time Design include :
A quick turnaround time of 24-48 hours
Experienced designers who are equipped to understand your distinct design needs
One-to-one chat with the designers
A 21-day risk-free trial period.
These are only a few of the features offered by All Time Design!
Start living your Food Truck dream!
Life’s too short to push aside your dreams. Get out your sketchbook, your laptop and get started on crafting your ultimate food truck dream! Once you’re done with the technical logistics, go ahead and begin hunting for a truck that you will shortly turn into every foodie’s dream hub!
Here are some key points to keep in mind in case you forgot :
- Branding is key
- Your team matters
- Personalization makes everything better
- There isn’t a thing under the Sun that you cannot do with some hard work and hustle.
Check out All Time Design’s website for more information regarding our services.
