Giving Every Restaurant the Right Tools to Stay on Brand

Taco Cabana needed local teams to order marketing materials without turning every request into a custom design job. I designed the ordering interface and variable-data templates that connected corporate-approved artwork with restaurant details, employee permissions, and print production, making local customization part of the system rather than an exception.

I worked with our in-house developer to shape the portal around what restaurant employees needed to do. Drawing on the Order Anywhere platform, we connected logins with locations and purchasing permissions, so people saw the materials they were authorized to order. Restaurant budgets and approval levels guided the transaction, while online proofs let users review their choices. That gave local teams a practical route to the right materials without giving them free rein over the brand.

I made the artwork reusable through Adobe InDesign templates with data merge, conditional content, and field mapping. Pricing, offers, and addresses could change while the corporate-approved design stayed intact. The approach supported menus, signage, coupons, and promotional pieces without requiring a designer to rebuild every variation. I also staged and photographed food with corporate chefs, then retouched the images for campaign use. The same production thinking connected what was ordered with what would actually print.

My responsibility continued beyond the screen. I worked with clients and account managers on quotes and budgets, coordinated materials and vendors, and handled prepress through finishing, kitting, and shipping. Connecting those decisions to the templates reduced manual preparation and helped prevent avoidable waste across local variations. The result was a system restaurants could order through and the print team could fulfill. I understood both sides because I worked on both sides, right down to the finished piece.