A good cocktail isn't just about the taste, or the alcohol content. It's the peacock tail of drinks: it's all about the look and the flair. That's why a description or even a picture can't do a well-designed cocktail justice. To properly get a feel for it, you've got to see it in 3-D.
That's what's so brilliant about this cocktail menu designed by London-based illustrator and paper engineer Helen Friel (previously on Co.Design for her stunning Euclidean geometry sculptures). She collaborated with illustrator Joe Wilson to create an amazing pop-up cocktail menu for the Beaufort Bar at the Savoy Hotel in London.
The design of each individual page is very clever. For some drinks, the Beaumont Cocktail book lets the garnishes and ingredients do the talking, allowing tomatoes, elderflowers, sprigs of mint and other herbs to bloom in front of a reader's eyes. Other drinks with less evocative ingredient lists have designs inspired by the name of the drink: the page for the Old Blue Eyes cocktail, for example, features a pop-up keyboard, microphone, and Frank Sinatra head lurking behind the drink itself, which takes center stage.
The Beaumont Cocktail book was printed as a limited edition of 1,000 copies, which are available to purchase through the hotel's gift shop. If there's one criticism I have of the Savoy Hotel's approach, it's that I like a bar that changes its cocktail menu every time I visit. Given the amount of work and consideration that went into executing Friel's design, something tells me that the Beaumont's cocktail menu is going to stay static for a very, very long time.
[h/t Distractify]