Creative Order Taking Turns Boring Work into Art (12 pics)

Typical order pad.

Working as a server in a restaurant, this is a standard order pad that i use to write down food orders as they are given to me while at a table. i always thought it was silly to use so much paper for a few orders so i decided to write my orders small...

..very small...

..front and back...

...for a very long time. its kind of hard to see but you can tell that there was a progression and eventual method to the order writing. i ended up dividing each sheet into three columns of roughly 80 orders a piece. (in the beginning it wasn't near that many) it turns out one can write quite the amount of food orders onto one small pad of paper.

this is the back of those same sheets. sorry it's so blurry.

Musical note door-opening.

I got bored with these "serial killer-ish" (as most of my co-workers like to describe them as) scribblings and decided to try writing these orders around designs. i started off simple with a negative space design originally conceived by artist Noma Bar.

I really liked how the musical note turned out so i tried a different, more familiar, design that required a little more attention to detail. it was neat to see how much detail i could get with my quickhand, abbreviated, chicken scratch.

Calligraphy pen spoon.

This is another Noma Bar design that i really liked and found to be more appropriate for the restaurant, order-taking/writing theme.

I decided to try something different and add color to make this iconic design. i thought it turned out nice, but i didn't like having to fumble around searching for a specific color while at my table so i decided to go back to just a black pen with a bigger idea in mind.

After seeing how much detail i could get with the small writing i decided to try a multiple sheet silhouette of jimi hendrix. i wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but the intricate detail of jimi's afro seemed like a fun challenge.

It turned out to be really challenging to do while at a table so most of the stray hairs ended up being drink orders that i normally don't bother to write down. to be more specific, waters with lemon.

This is the end result of about 3.5 months of orders taken at my restaurant as well as a practically hidden signature. i have plans to do something even more elaborate sometime soon.