Designing your Bakery

Your small bakery layout floor plan is essential to the foundation of your business. Taking the time to map a floor plan out meticulously is crucial. Your commercial bakery design layout gives you an idea how many guests you can accommodate, the restaurant furniture you need, where to store your equipment, and have your daily workflow come into fruition. Seeing your plan drawn out on paper or on a computer screen will give you a better understanding of your bakery business and help you organize everything else. Your bakery floor plan should be equally efficient and visually appealing which can ultimately maximize your service and profits.

No matter what type of bakery floor plan you create or choose, you need to:

• Ensure adequate seating capacity: Your bakery aisle should measure at least 4 feet wide to prevent congestion. Passage areas between restaurant tables and chairs should be 18”. Overcrowded aisles can result in an uncomfortable experience for customers which can have negative consequences on sales.
• Set up a visually appealing store front display: A visible enticing bakery display set up at the entrance can excite customers and make them feel welcomed at your bakery. Doing as such can pique their interest in your business and what you can offer them.
• Add breaks to your aisle: Studies show that customers skip up to 2 percent of your products due to long or uninterrupted aisles. Creating breaks in your aisles will keep your customers more engaged.
• Review state department of health’s codes:It’s important to thoroughly review your state’s health codes to avoid violations and make sure your floor plan meets regulations.

Your bakery design serves to welcome your customers and promote your brand. Mastering a few bakery design basics can make your cake/pastry shop stand out and convert first time visitors to regular customers. On that note, your bakery’s entryways should be spacious enough to lure people into your shop. Dutch or half doors along with a vent fan situated above the door can entice by-passers with aromas of baked goods. If you have enough space, arranging counters and cases displaying your products to face the store front near the entrance for window shoppers to see can draw them in.

Displaying tall cases with transparent ends capitalize on the visual presentation of baked goods in small spaces whilst allowing customers enough room to enter and exit the bakery. Light and neutral colored walls such as cream, beige, white, pale yellow or maple create a spacious effect. A simple color palette with one dominant or accent color will prevent your bakery from looking too cluttered to visitors. Installing mirrors behind the counter is another good design idea as they reflect light thus increasing the sense of space and enhancing the displays. For instance, placing a sample wedding cake on top of a display case behind a mirror will show customers both the front and rear view of the cake.

When delivering an array of mouthwatering cookies, decorative pies, or magnificent wedding cakes, your bakery logo should be just as tantalizing. A logo that falls flat will do you a lot of disservice. Understandably, hiring a professional to design your logo may not be in your budget. That money at the moment would be better spent on ovens, bakery equipment or hardware. Designing your own catchy and successful logo is very easy to do. Understanding the following principles for creating your own logo is foremost to learning how:

• Check out the bakery logos your competitors use. The last thing you should want is to find yourself in a quandary where your logo is too similar to that of other local bakeries. You can avoid this predicament by knowing what logos they use. At the same time, learning what logos successful bakeries and other eateries use can help you find trends and strategies that work well for your bakery.
• Consider the design and brand that best represents your bakery before designing your logo. What is your bakery known for and what does your brand say about it? Your logo should reflect your bakery design and brand.
• Designing a logo that matches your bakery’s brand and design entails selecting the right colors and fonts. Certain colors and fonts bring certain themes to mind. A fancy curved font championed with dark colors express a vintage design. Bubbly and youthful fonts with bright colors will emphasize on a fun, childish design.
• Most bakeries have their reputations built on certain baked goods, pastries, flavors and other specialties. If you have a specialty that is highly requested by your customers, it may be a good idea to reference that item on your logo. Doing so will help your previous customers become familiarized with your logo and get the word out about your bakery to potential customers.
• Your bakery logo should appeal to your customers. If you specialize in wedding cakes, your logo should be directed at brides and grooms. If your bakery serves families, your logo should relate to the young and those young at heart. Thinking about your customers will make it much easier to select a logo design that signifies your brand the most but above all, customers will fall in love with.