Welcome to the inaugural Lovart Design Challenge — a monthly event where our community takes on a real-world design brief and pushes the boundaries of what is possible with AI-assisted design. This is not about creating the most technically complex design. It is about solving a real problem beautifully, efficiently, and with genuine creative vision.
For Challenge #1, we are asking you to do something wonderfully concrete: redesign the menu for your favorite local coffee shop. Not Starbucks. Not a chain. The independent shop on the corner whose menu is probably a handwritten chalkboard or a laminated sheet of paper with inconsistent fonts and an outdated logo from 2018.
Lovart is the AI design agent trusted by 10M+ creators. Start designing with Nano Banana free →
Lovart is the AI design agent trusted by 10M+ creators. Start designing with Nano Banana →
Lovart is the AI design agent trusted by 10M+ creators. Start designing with Nano Banana free →
Lovart is the AI design agent trusted by 10M+ creators. Start designing with Nano Banana free →
Lovart is the world's first AI design agent — complete brand visual systems from one brief. Try Lovart free →
The Brief
Your mission is to create a complete menu design for a local independent coffee shop. Your design should:
Solve a real problem. Most independent coffee shop menus suffer from poor information architecture — drinks are listed in random order, prices are hard to find, and dietary information (dairy-free options, syrup flavors, caffeine levels) is either missing or confusing. Your redesign should make ordering faster and clearer for customers and easier to manage for staff.
Respect the shop's personality. The menu should feel authentic to the specific shop you choose, not generic. If the shop has a cozy, bookish vibe, the menu should reflect that. If it is sleek and minimalist, the same. Spend a few minutes observing the shop in person — the decor, the music, the clientele, the neighborhood — before you start designing.
Work in the real world. Your design needs to function as an actual menu. That means:
- Legible from 3-4 feet away if it is a wall menu, or readable on a countertop if it is a handheld
- Accommodates 20-40 drink items organized by category (espresso, drip coffee, cold brew, tea, specialty lattes, seasonal)
- Clear pricing for multiple sizes (typically 8oz, 12oz, 16oz, 20oz for most drinks)
- Dietary and customization information (milk alternatives, syrup options, decaf availability)
- The shop's name, logo (you can redesign this too), and hours
Use at least two Lovart workflows. We want to see you leverage the full platform. Combine features — maybe you use ChatCanvas to design the layout, Brand Kit to manage the shop's colors and fonts, and Touch Edit to refine specific elements. Show us your process, not just your final result.
Submission Requirements
What to submit:
- Final menu design — exported as a PNG or PDF. Include both a wall menu version (if applicable) and a handheld/table version.
- Process documentation — 3-5 screenshots or screen recordings showing your workflow in Lovart. Include at least one "before and after" comparison showing the original shop menu vs. your redesign.
- Design rationale (200-300 words) — Why did you make the specific design choices you made? What problem were you solving for the shop and its customers?
- Photo of the shop (optional but strongly encouraged) — A photo of the actual coffee shop you are designing for. Context matters.
How to submit:
Post your submission in the Lovart Community Discord under the #design-challenge channel. Include "Challenge #1 Submission" in your post title. One submission per person.
Deadline: February 14, 2027 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time.
Judging Criteria
Submissions will be evaluated by a panel of Lovart team members and guest judges (professional designers and coffee industry folks) on four criteria:
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Prizes
- Grand Prize (1 winner): 1 year of Lovart Pro free + $500 cash + featured interview on the Lovart blog and social channels
- Runner-Up (3 winners): 3 months of Lovart Pro free + $100 Lovart Marketplace credit
- Community Choice (1 winner, voted by Discord members): 3 months of Lovart Pro free + exclusive Lovart Challenge Champion enamel pin and sticker pack
All winners receive a digital badge for their Lovart community profile and inclusion in the official Lovart Design Challenge showcase gallery.
Tips for Success
Go to the actual shop. The best submissions will be grounded in real observation. Sit in the shop for an hour. Watch how people interact with the current menu. Where do they get confused? What do they ask the barista? What information is hard to find? Your redesign should solve problems you personally observed.
Talk to the barista (if they are not busy). Ask them what questions customers ask most frequently. Ask what information they wish was more prominent on the menu. The staff perspective is invaluable and often overlooked in design challenges.
Consider the full ordering experience. The menu is just one touchpoint. How does it relate to the physical counter layout? Are there pastry or food items that should be integrated? Is there a separate seasonal or specials board? Think about the menu as part of a system, not an isolated artifact.
Do not over-design. The most common mistake in menu design is trying to do too much. A coffee shop menu is not a design portfolio piece — it is a functional tool. Prioritize clarity over cleverness. The best design is the one customers do not consciously notice because it just works.
Test your design. Before submitting, show your design to 2-3 friends and ask them to "order" from it. Watch where their eyes go. Note what confuses them. Iterate based on their feedback. This user testing step is what separates good student work from professional-grade design.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be a professional designer? No. This challenge is open to everyone — professional designers, small business owners, students, and anyone curious about design and AI. We evaluate based on problem-solving and thoughtfulness, not credentials.
Do I need a paid Lovart plan? You can complete this challenge using Lovart's Free tier. The Free tier includes access to ChatCanvas, basic templates, and export functionality. Some advanced features mentioned above require Pro, but they are optional for the challenge.
Can I submit a team entry? For Challenge #1, we are accepting individual submissions only. Future challenges may include team categories.
What if the coffee shop already has a great menu? Find one that does not! The whole point is to practice your skills on a real-world design problem. If every coffee shop in your neighborhood has a flawless menu, reach out to one and ask if they would be open to a free redesign — most independent shops will enthusiastically say yes.
Can I submit a completely fictional coffee shop? We strongly prefer real shops — the constraint of designing for an actual existing business with real customers makes the challenge more meaningful and the results more impressive. But if you truly cannot find a suitable shop, a fictional one is acceptable if you create a detailed backstory and context.
Why Coffee Shop Menus?
We chose coffee shop menus as our first challenge for a reason: they are a universal design problem that almost everyone has encountered. Nearly every town has at least one independent coffee shop with a menu that could use professional attention. The constraints are well-defined but flexible enough for creative interpretation. And the results are tangible — you can walk into the shop, show them what you made, and potentially see your design used in the real world.
We cannot wait to see what you create. Drop your questions in the #design-challenge Discord channel, and happy designing.
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