The
photos on the website for Zip’s are of the restaurant in the 1950s when it
first opened and the food that is served there on the home page. They represent
how long the diner has been around and how popular it was and still is. The
font is reminiscent of the ’50s and is yellow, a color that is said to make
people hungry backed by red which is supposed to make the heart beat faster.
The background of the entire website is a deep, serene blue, which is supposed
to make people calmer and more open to trust. The intended audience is clearly
potential customers; the feeling of the website is family-run and friendly.
Looking at the food makes me hungry so clearly there is a little subliminal
messaging there. Under the photos tab on the site there are only a few
pictures, but they are of the sign for the diner, which is supposed to be the
original and of the Block Party they hosted and ran two years ago to celebrate
Independence Day. This sends the message that they are still original but
involved in the current events of the community with enough influence to put
together a massive party with an old car show in the parking lot across the
street. According to the history page the diner was named for a former state
trooper who had the nickname “Zip” and gives a brief history of how the current
owners, the Jodoin family, came to own it since the ’60s. On that page there is
a picture of the grill of an old car and the original sign, both in the old
sepia tint. They are representing themselves as a classic restaurant with a
classic family run, friendly, roadside diner, which is what I think attracts a
lot of customers. It surprised me how well this site was put together, I thought
it would be out of date or not very informative, but it was actually pretty
well done for not being a corporation with access to the latest digital trends
and technology. The site fits very well with what I already know about Zip’s. http://www.zipsdiner.com/
I
thought it would be a good idea to go to a site where they give reviews, so I went
to http://www.yelp.com/biz/zips-dining-car-dayville.
The site itself only gave a couple pictures of the “EAT” sign and the outside
of the diner and gave yes or no answers to the most basic questions (parking,
takes out, wait service, etc), the address, and the telephone number. Below
that were twenty reviews, ranging from two stars to five stars. There were only
two or three bad reviews, the rest were positive and gave recommendations to
try the place out, but not on Saturday or Sunday morning (I agree, don’t even
try, you can’t get near the place). As for the setup of the site, it has basic
fonts and colors; there are ads on the side as well as an option to get driving
directions. It’s aesthetically boring but for my purposes, good enough. The
audience is potential customers and the authors of reviews are regular people,
some of which are clearly not used to or fans of diner food, which is very different
from normal restaurants.
The
next site looks at eccentric roadside attractions all over the country, and I guess
a smooth-running fifties diner in 2013 is pretty out there. http://eccentricroadside.blogspot.com/2009/09/zips-diner-of-dayville-connecticut-if.html
is a blog that calls the diner a “little bit of diner heaven” and gives a basic
rundown of the place as well as the address. The authors are Gunnar and Sherry,
no last names, and they seemed to fall in love with the place. The font is basic
and white on a black background. The audience is potential customers and other
diner junkies like me. They posted pictures of the outside of the diner, the
famous “EAT” sign, the inside, the menus, and the food. It is clearly from a
few years ago, before the plaza across the street popped up.
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