Typography & Tacos: What Restaurant Advertising Taught Me About Deadlines, Dining, and Discipline

Hello all, my name is Shane Lockett and I’m a senior advertising major at Temple University with a concentration in Art Direction. For the past nine years of my life, ever since I was the sweet, tender age of 16, I’ve slaved away in the food service industry in some way, shape, or form. This journey started when I took a job working at a deli in high school in an attempt to put some extra money away for when I got to college, and after nearly a decade, I still haven’t quite found a way to dig the restaurant industries’ deeply-sunk claws out of me.

Over the years, I’ve worked as a bartender, waiter, food runner, barback, sandwich artist, fry cook (and due to the unfortunate reality of working in restaurants, I could probably tack some plumbing and exterminator experience on my resume too.) I’ve worked my way through college, giving what free time I have to the endless churning of restaurant patrons that I graciously serve every week, consistently staying up far past my bedtime while simultaneously trying to balance my college education and some semblance of a social life. 

Now, for most people, the experience that I just described sounds like an actual nightmare, but I couldn’t disagree more. I absolutely adore working in restaurants and have met some of my closest lifelong friends at Rosy’s Taco Bar, the location where I currently serve.

Additionally, I have always wanted to pursue a career in food and beverage advertising post-graduation, so I was ecstatic when I was offered a graphic design internship at FCM Hospitality, the restaurant group that owns Rosy’s as well as an array of unique and successful locations across Philadelphia like Morgan’s Pier located on the Delaware River and The Dolphin Tavern in South Philly.

Having been an employee of FCM for nearly four years now, I was also lucky enough to already have a relationship with some members of the marketing team, so the transition into the office was incredibly comfortable. My supervisor Laura, who is the Design Manager for all of FCM, has been incredibly supportive and helpful as I’ve learned the ropes of doing creative work in a professional setting and I’m very grateful for the fact that I’ve been able to experiment and learn as I go throughout all of my projects.

As a graphic design intern, most of the assignments that I had early on were designing and updating event packets, and starting there really helped me to get a good understanding of each of the locations’ brand identity. These event packets didn’t really offer much in the way of opportunities for doing any really fun with them, but designing under a strict set of established brand guidelines was new for me, and I really felt like it helped me to grow my graphic design and art direction skills as it forced me to be creative and create compelling and interesting designs by using assets that already existed in new ways.

As time went on and my skills and confidence improved, Laura started to assign me the task of updating menus for our locations, and I ended up learning a lot about typography and type layout because I had to be able to fit all of the items on a single page and while making it easily understandable while still encapsulating the various locations’ visual identities. Alongside menus, I was able to start designing social media graphics for events at our bars and restaurants like the Eagles’ playoff games or for Valentine’s Day drink specials. I was definitely given the most freedom when designing graphics and flyers for events because they didn’t have to follow the brand identity as much given the fact that they were only going to be used for a single night. I think my favorite thing that I’ve been able to design so far would be the menus for Valentine’s Day. Finding ways to make something look lovey-dovey and Valentine’s themed while also still being somewhat cohesive with the rest of the brand was a really interesting challenge.

I ended up actually enjoying and being proud of a lot of the work I did over this Spring and every time I got to see something that I made get posted to a social media account or in the hands of customers at Rosy’s, it felt unbelievably rewarding. However, given the fact that I am so familiar with the hectic nature of working at restaurants and bars, I was definitely naive not to have expected some of that to carry over into the marketing department as well. It wasn’t uncommon for an event to slip through the cracks or a DJ to cancel at the last minute resulting in a new menu or flyer having to be whipped up, printed, and delivered in time for dinner service that night. With FCM also owning 15 restaurants and bars across the City, requests for marketing material were continuous and it was rare that multiple projects weren’t being balanced at the same time, each at a different stage, awaiting approval or printing or edits. However, I really learned a lot about discipline and time management when things got overwhelming like that, because the assignments that I had were for real places, owned by a real business, with real customers spending real money, and they couldn’t wait until things calmed down. I honestly think just being in the office and seeing everyone put their head down and do their job had the biggest impact on me. In the past, I’ve really struggled with time management and direction when it came to graphic design and getting to talk to Laura and everyone else in the office about how they managed to get everything done was really eye-opening for me.

All-in-all, I’ve learned an incredible amount of valuable lessons so far and I’ve been able to apply a lot of the skills and knowledge that I’ve gained at FCM to other aspects of my life, and I feel like a more organized and better person for it. Getting to be in the marketing department for such a large restaurant group has only furthered my desire to pursue food and beverage marketing in the future and I hope that I can continue to work alongside FCM until then. Lastly, my biggest piece of advice for students looking for an internship is that sometimes an opportunity comes along that you weren’t looking for but it can end up being one of the better decisions you’ve made. While the real world can be scary and overwhelming, just embracing the bumps and putting your head down can make all the difference.