Charlotte Harris Research
Contents Proposal..................................3-4 How & Why.................................5-6 The Pleasure of Reading Recipes..........7-10 History of Cookbooks....................11-14 Artist Research.........................15-22 Communication...........................23-28
1
Layout.....................................29 Media...................................30-32 Photography.............................33-38 Portion Sizes...........................39-40 Content Survey..........................41-49 Final Thoughts.............................50
2
My Proposal Topic: Food, Kitchen Diary Brief: Create a nurturing visual language with the aim of extending identified target audience’s interest and knowledge of key aspects within nutrition. Target Audience: Young people aged 18-24 and students that are fairly amateur in the kitchen but interested in cooking delicious healthy food. Information must be accessible to those with little or no knowledge of basic cooking techniques. Creative Requirements: Develop a clear communication style that can be easily followed. Produce clean and fresh photography of food and also primary prints that can then be digitally enhanced. Create a strong visual language within a journal style layout. Objectives: Produce a portrait of the possible nutrition future. Print pieces could be a poster, book, or even postage stamp. The digital execution could be static, moving, or interactive. The print and digital executions should be extensions of each other, that can work together but also stand alone. Produce a collective visual identity and communication style that will be implemented primarily through physical print, targeting the niche psychograph as highlighted in the brief. Come up with a name: Think about the audience. The name can be in English or any other language, or something completely invented, but it must be able to resonate around the interested niche communities. Create an identity: Logo, colour, type, imagery and tone of voice. Use them to create something memorable, making sure it will work for both of the intended audiences and the individual. Have an online presence: Create a concept for the online home of the designed outputs. Is it just for awareness-building, or does it offer more? How do you use it to speak to audiences? Launch: Create a show stopping concept for the launch in September 2016. Think big, but be practical. Don’t limit yourself thinking too much about budgets etc, but do make it something that could actually happen.
3
Deliverables: Graphic Design, Advertising, Branding, Communication, Photography, Print Design, Illustration, Marketing, Research Strategy/ Methodology Interview people that are enthusiastic about cooking Research into similar cookbooks to get a better understanding of how they communicate Take a content survey to discover what makes people buy certain cookbooks, find out unique selling points of books that aren’t celebrity cookbooks Take a content survey to find out what foods are popular with the target audience Experiment with new and different processes Explore contemporary layouts Research historical influences, see the progression within cookbooks Gather information about correct portion sizes and healthier alternatives Read a range of cookbooks to get a better understanding of the language used Learn from David Loftus’ online food photography videos Reading List Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger, Nigel Slater A History of Food in 100 Recipes, William Sitwell Picture Cook: See. Make. Eat. Katie Shelly Graphic Design Cookbook Consider The Fork: A History of How we Cook and Eat Eat Tweet, Maureen Evans 100 Ideas that changed Graphic Design Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child
4
How and Why I decided on this topic
When I started to think about what I wanted to base my Final Major Project on, I knew I wanted it to be something that I am interested in and something personal to me. I had been wanting to create some sort of recipe journal just for my personal use and then realised that this would be a good opportunity to create a more proffessional version of what I’d been thinking about. I would have a good amount of time and resources to create something that I was really passionate about. I had been using Pinterest before starting the project to collect style and theme ideas, this helped me have an idea of a final product. I just needed to learn the techniques that I would need to use, including things like layout, photography, content, flow and new processes.
5
My passion of food is one of the most important aspects of my cookbook, it’s how i will relate to the target audience. Some of my ideas on my original mindmap included using personal photographs and quotes from my own family and friends to make the book have a real personal touch that I think consumers could relate to. I think that my passion stems from cooking and baking with my Mum from a young age, she is a great cook. Unusually, she didn’t learn what she knows from her Mum, she took cooking classes to learn from scratch. She still has all of the old recipes and methods on scraps of paper which I could photograph and scan to add to the authenticity of my book. My Dad is a chef, he used to teach at Colleges, has has his own pub and restaurant. I have lots of stories that could be included in my recipes and methods to give it more of a Novel feel, my favourite including having leftover Mississippi Mud Pie brought home from the restaurant.
6
Marc Rosenthal Whilst researching ways to make my cookbook more unique I found an interesting article on the New Yorker website about the pleasure of reading recipes. I could really relate to the article as reading recipes purely for pleasure is a sort of hobby in my mind. Even if I dont plan on cooking, I can happily sit down and read a cookbook and really enjoy the content, I find it a really good source of inspiration. After reading the article I decided that my cookbook should be more than an average, everyday cookbook. It should be a book that could be read for leisure as well as being a helpful tool. The article also lead me to research more into the history of cookbooks, I hadn’t concidered that up to the 18th century recipes had only been meant as instructions for servants to read rather than advice for everyday people.
7
The Pleasures of Reading Recipes By Bee Wilson Recipe readers are always talking about how cookbooks are like novels, and there’s a clue here to how we actually read them. Like a short story, a good recipe can put us in a delightful trance. The Oxford English Dictionary defines fiction as literature “concerned with the narration of imaginary events.” This is what recipes are: stories of pretend meals. Don’t be fooled by the fact that they are written in the imperative tense (pick the basil leaves, peel the onion). Yes, you might do that tomorrow, but right now, you are doing something else. As you read, your head drowsily on the pillow, there is no onion, but you watch yourself peel it in your mind’s eye, tugging off the papery skin and noting with satisfaction that you have not damaged the layers underneath. I was contemplating the nature of cookbooks while reading William Sitwell’s new book, “A History of Food in 100 Recipes.” It is an agreeably humorous romp through the history of food,
divided into a hundred standout moments. It starts with ancient Egyptian bread—a recipe found on a tomb in Luxor—and ends with “Meat Fruit,” a recipe for liver parfait dipped in mandarin jelly and shaped to look like an orange, written by the experimental British chef Heston Blumenthal. Sitwell—who is the editor of Waitrose Kitchen, which is the U.K.’s version of Bon Appétit—has chosen his recipes not necessarily because they are delicious, but because they illustrate a particular stage in our culinary history. No. 66 is a strawberry ice-cream soda from General Electric Refrigerators, which reflects the way that domestic fridges “took over America” in the nineteen-twenties. No. 77 is “Watercress soup for one,” a joyless Weight Watchers dish from 1963 containing water, chicken bouillon cube, and not much else. My favorite recipe was No. 65, “Creamed Mushrooms,” taken from “The International Jewish Cookbook,” by Florence Kreisler Greenbaum (1919).
The recipe itself is for mushrooms simmered in a béchamel sauce with “a gill of cream” added. “Cooked like this,” Greenbaum tells us, “mushrooms have more nutritive value than beef.” Sitwell uses the recipe as a springboard into a discussion of the pop-up toaster (invented by Charles Strite in the same year as Greenbaum’s cookbook), and the “frantic and fiercely fought battles” driving rival patents for toast-making. Finally, he ponders “the Cat and the Buttered Toast Theory.” Buttered toast is notorious for landing buttered-side down. Likewise, it is said that a cat “if dropped, always lands on its feet.” So, Sitwell asks, “what happens if you tie a slice of buttered toast to the cat’s back? When the cat is dropped, will the two opposing forces of butter and feet cause the cat to hover?” From this, you get a sense of Sitwell’s schoolboyish sense of the absurd. But he has done something in this book that is highly original and not absurd at all. At
8
9
the start he gives us a “note on the recipes,” which explains that he does not actually expect us to cook from them. They are not “triple tested,” he confesses. He has chosen not to update the ancient recipes so that they could be knocked out “after a quick trip to your local supermarket.” Sitwell says that he wants us “to simply read and enjoy the recipes as they were written down.” Sitwell has removed one of the sources of pleasure we get from cookbooks, which is the illusion that we are actually going to make every recipe we fancy the look of. But being asked to read recipes for their own sake, rather than with a view to cooking, gives a clearer sense of how they stimulate our imaginations. The vast majority of the recipes we read are hypothetical. I’ve spent more hours than I care to count this year staring at an April Bloomfield recipe for veal shank. I’ll probably never make it. I’m not sure if my butcher even sells the right cut of veal. But, I’m telling you, the imaginary version tastes incredible. Recipes have a story arc. You need to get
through the tricky early prepping stages via the complications of heat and measuring before you arrive at the point of happy closure where the dish goes in the oven or is sliced or served. When a recipe has many ingredients and stages and finicky instructions, it can be hard to concentrate, like reading a Victorian novel with so many characters that you need a dramatis personae to keep things straight. Sitwell includes a lamb korma recipe from Madhur Jaffrey, with an ingredient list that goes on for more than a page (“a piece of ginger, about 1.5 inches long and 1 inch wide, peeled and coarsely chopped, 1 large tomato (tinned or fresh) or 2 small ones, peeled and coarsely chopped, 1 tsp ground turmeric,” and so on). I’ve cooked this dish. It is, like all of Jaffrey’s recipes (or rather, all of the ones that I’ve tried, which is about twenty), very delicious, with a wonderful balance of flavors and textures. But if we forget cooking and “simply” read, you might get a quicker payoff from the recipe for peach melba by Auguste Escoffier,
the nineteenth-century chef who popularized French cooking Poach the skinned peaches in vanilla-flavoured syrup. When very cold arrange them in a timbale on a bed of vanilla ice cream and coat with raspberry puree. There are many mysteries here: What is a timbale? And how do you make a vanilla-flavoured syrup? If Escoffer tried to clear them up, the recipe would be easier to use but less intriguing. And part of the pleasure of recipe-reading is the feeling that you are about to discover a great secret. You feel this all the more when reading historic recipes, which offer the adventure of being taken into an unfamiliar world of copper cooking basins and silver moulds, spits and salamanders. “Pyke out their cores” advises a baked-quince recipe from 1500, in rather more violent terminology than any cook today would use for the innocent act of coring fruit. Sitwell’s collection introduces us to exotic kitchen vocabulary: “coffins,” for pastry cases; “sippets,” for little pieces of toast. He quotes a recipe for roast fil-
let of beef from the seventeenth-century writer Robert May: “Broach it on a broach not too big, and be careful not to broach it through the best of the meat, roast it leisurely, & baste it with sweet butter.” Most of our kitchens today are sadly lacking in broaches. Sitwell has fun with the ways that recipe-writing has changed over the centuries, and the ways that it has stayed the same. Until the eighteenth century, recipes as a genre are not really like our recipes at all. They are instructions for servants rather than kindly advice whispered from one cook to another. Sitwell writes of one medieval ”cookbook” This is not a book for the kitchen and it never was. The pages are as clean as a bible’s. It was written as a record and also as an aide-memoire for the cook. As ever, there are no cooking times and quantities are scarce. But if the words and equipment are strange, the meals being described are often reassuringly familiar: John Evelyn’s salad in the seventeenth-century, with its “smooth, light and pleasant” olive oil and “herby” leaves;
John Smith’s cauliflower and cheese, from 1860. There’s always the question of how much recipes really reflect what people cook at any given time. There is no English recipe for bread until the fifteenth century, notes Sitwell, “but of course people were eating bread centuries before.” We are endlessly told that Elizabeth David transformed postwar cookery in Britain, but I wonder how many people really made her cassoulet toulousain (No. 76), which calls for preserved goose, breast of mutton, and a whole garlic sausage. Likewise, we can’t read too much into the average diet of nineteen-forties America from the recipe (No. 72) for “French creamed oysters” from Gourmet magazine, which calls for four-dozen oysters, sherry, anchovy paste, a quart of cream, and a dusting of paprika. Yet every recipe, whether we cook it or not, offers a vision of the good life, and a way of tasting food in your brain. It doesn’t need to actually have been eaten in its time to feel real to us now. The loveliest recipe in Sitwell’s book comes from “Le Cuisinier Francois,”
the great ur-text of French cuisine, written by the chef La Varenne in 1651. It is for “Spargus with white sauce”: asparagus with a sort-of-hollandaise: As they come from the garden, scrape them and cut them equally; seeth them with water and salt. Take them out, as little sod as you can, it is the better, and set them draining. Then make a sauce with fresh butter, the yolk of an egg, salt, nutmeg, a small drop of vinegar; and when all is well stirred together, and the sauce allayed, serve your spargus. I have made versions of asparagus and hollandaise many times in late spring, when the first green bundles arrive in the market. But never has it tasted as perfect or alive as it does in my head when I read Varenne’s words. I could never reproduce the dish, because the circumstances in which I cook are totally different. Sometimes, it’s enough to dream how things might be, in a fictitious kitchen where the “spargus” comes straight from the garden and the butter is always fresh.
10
History of Cookbooks The earliest cookbooks on record seem to be mainly lists of recipes for what would now be called haute cuisine, they were often written primarily to either provide a record of the author’s favourite dishes or to train professional cooks for banquets and upper-class, private homes. Many of these cookbooks, provide only limited sociological or culinary value, as they leave out significant sections of ancient cuisine such as peasant food, breads and preparations. The earliest collection of recipes that has survived in Europe is De re coquinaria, written in Latin. An early version was first compiled sometime in the 1st century. The earliest cookbooks known in Arabic are those of Al-Warraq, an early 10th century collection of recipes from the 9th and 10th centuries and Al-Baghdadi from the 13th century. Chinese recipe books are known from the Tang Dynasty. One of the earliest surviving Chinese-language cookbooks is Hu Sihui’s “Yinshan Zhengyao” (Important Principles of Food and Drink), believed to be from 1330. Hu Sihui, Buyantu Khan’s dietitian and therapist, recorded a Chinese-inflected Central Asian cuisine as eaten by the Yuan court; his recipes were adapted from foods eaten all over the Mongol Empire. The earliest genuinely medieval recipes have been found in a Danish manuscript dating from around 1300, which in turn are copies of older texts that date back to the early 13th century. There have been hundreds of recipes found across Europe from the 13th century, even ordered alphabetically. Recipes originating in England include the earliest recorded recipe for ravioli (1390s) and Forme of Cury, a late 14th-century manuscript written by chefs of Richard II of England.
11
The printing press was fist introduced in the 16th and 17th centuries, numerous books were written on how to manage households and prepare food. In Holland and England competition grew between the noble families as to who could prepare the most lavish banquet. By the 1660s, cookery had progressed to an art form and good cooks were in demand. Many of them published their own books detailing their recipes in competition with their rivals. By the 19th century, the Victorian obsession with domestic respectability brought about cookery writing in its modern form. The first modern cookery writer and compiler of recipes for the home was Eliza Acton. Her pioneering cookbook Modern Cookery for Private Families was published in 1845. It was aimed at the domestic reader rather than the professional cook or chef. This was an immensely influential book and it established the format for modern writing about cookery. The publication introduced the now-universal practice of listing the ingredients and suggested cooking times with each recipe. It included the first recipe for Brussels sprouts. Contemporary chef Delia Smith is quoted as having called Acton “The best writer of recipes in the English language.” Acton’s work was an important influence on Isabella Beeton who published Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management in 24 monthly parts between 1857 and 1861. The book was a guide to running a Victorian household, with advice on fashion, child care, animal husbandry, poisons, the management of servants, science, religion, and industrialism. Of the 1,112 pages, over 900 contained recipes, such that another popular name for the volume is Mrs Beeton’s Cookbook. Most of the recipes were illustrated with coloured engravings, and it was the first book to show recipes in a format that is still used today. It was intended as a guide of reliable information for the aspirant middle classes.
12
When I look through my Mum’s old cookbooks, they dont all have beautiful, vibrant photographs and illustrations. A lot of them contain the kind of instructive, black-and-white line illustrations that actually show you how to do things like bone a chicken breast. These types of illustrations can still be stylish, elegant and memorable. Amy Vanderbilt’s Complete Cookbook (1961) was illustrated by Andy Warhol. Mrs. Vanderbilt, heir to one of America’s largest industrial fortunes, portrayed herself in this book as a thrifty housewife who loved to entertain. This cookbook’s illustrations are attributed to “Andrew Warhol”, and predate Andy Warhol’s first New York solo pop art exhibition. His illustrations are all simple line drawings in pen and ink. Warhol, the artist best known for his flashy and often cheeky commentaries on consumerism, created a very different sort of artwork before he became famous. The illustrations are quite literal and without much character. Before this, while working as an advertising illustrator in 1959, he teamed up with socialite Suzie Frankfurt to write a cookbook called “Wild Raspberries.” This shows to me that Warhol was quite interested in cooking, like me, which may or may not explain his fascination with Campbell’s Soup cans.
These illustrations from his Wild Raspberries cookbook are still quite unlike his later work but are similar to what I had imagined in my own cookbook. The rough sketches, messy watercolours, handwritten text and labelling are all aspects that I wish to include in my own work. I had never seen these illustrations of Warhol’s before so I was relieved that such a famous artist had done work like this in his early years.
14
Artist Research My original idea was for the cookbook to have a handmade feel, more like a recipe journal you would make at home with hand drawn images and messy watercolours. I think that this style would give my cookbook an authentic and trustworthy feel to it, which may be an important aspect since it is a non-celebrity cookbook. I collected images from a range of artists that inspired me at the time. I really enjoy the splatters of paint used in these illustrations as this adds to the senses in the same way food splashes when we cook. A lot of the images, mainly sourced on Pinterest, inlude handwritten aspects, whether it be on packaging or labeling the food. This is another feature that I could include in my own work as the target audience might not know what some vegetables are. The fact that I found so many food illustations in this style on Pinterest was slightly frustrating as a lot of them don’t credit the artist. At the same time it was interesting to see how many of the illustrations were linked to websites such as Etsy, selling posters of the images. This shows that in my final exhibition I could have my own illustrations printed and on show as part of it. The whole handmade feel gives a real sensual impact which I think would work really well in my cookbook because if someone was to simply sit and read it for pleasure, it has just as good if not a better impact than simply using food photography.
16
Lauren Tamaki is an illustrator, designer, and art director who keeps a vibrant and dynamic online sketchbook. Her design work incorporates a style that’s captivated the fashion, lifestyle, and travel industries as well as top publications. Her clients include Kate Spade, Armani Exchange, Martha Stewart Living, The Wall Street Journal, Random House, and New York Magazine. Tamaki lives in Brooklyn, New York. Before this project I hadn’t heard of Tamaki which surprises me because I really love this style. The colours she uses, the style of messy yet minimalist really work well together. I find this especially in her food and nature illustrations. When I look at her work, it seems effortless. It inspires me to do similar illustrations in this project and helped me to consider the fact that the handdrawn can have a clean finish.
17
Wendy MacNaughton is a New York Times best-selling illustrator and graphic journalist based in San Francisco.Her clients include: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Print magazine, Lucky Peach, Pop-Up Magazine, AFAR, IDEO, Time Magazine, Bon Appetit and GOOD Magazine. I really enjoy Macnaughton’s innocent and quite childlike style. It is simple and easy to relate to. A lot of her work includes text which is handwritten. This is an aspect that I am considering including in my cookbook, if I can use it in a clear and concise way as to not confuse the user of the product. This is a difficult skill to learn as I find quite often that it can become disjointed and hard to follow, which is important in a recipe.
18
After looking at hand drawn and hand painted illustrations within food I moved on to looking at more bold styles including illustrations that had been made using printmaking techniques. I really like this method because you get the bold vibrant effect with the handmade feel still included. For me, having the handmade feel within the illustrations in my cookbook is an important feature because the food will be handmade and the illustrations need to relate to this. Another method that came to mind when researching into printmaking was to do actual food prints, using vegetables and bright coloured paints to make prints, possibly for title pages or backgrounds. This would incorporate the childlike aspect that I like and add another handmade layer to the work.
20
Boyoun Kim is a freelance illustrator based in New York City. She was born in Korea and studied illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her works have been selected by American Illustration, Society of illustrators NY, Communication Arts, CMYK, 3x3, Print Magazine, Visual Arts Gallery, and EMOA Gallery. When I came across Kim’s work, it gave me a lot of ideas of a different direction I could take my style in. Rather than having the handmade feel be through painting and drawing, it could be through print. I love how bold Kim’s work is yet it still has grains and textures that give it an authentic feel. She uses similar vibrant colours to that of Tamaki’s work. The colours that she chooses to overlap always work together as to not distract from the mood of the piece. Again, I like her food and nature illustrations more than any others.
21
Abbey is a freelance illustrator and recent graduate of Leeds College oft Art where she studied Printed Textiles & Surface Pattern Design. Combining playful, illustrative details with hand printed textures and traditional printmaking, Abbey creates contemporary imagery and prints intended for both interior and paper products. I found that Withington sells her prints on items such as dishcloths which I hadn’t even considered but think it would be a nice addition to my exhibition. I like the 2 dimentional style of her work and some of the colours she uses have a very retro feel. I also like the idea of making images of pots, pans and cutlery as well as the food itself, it gives a more homely feel to it somehow.
22
How Other Cookbooks Communicate When researching into existing cookbooks, I found a really wide range of layouts, styles and hooks. I was really inspired by the new and innovative ways in which people are communicating their recipes. From cookbooks with purely images and infographics to ‘Eat Tweet’ a cookbook that boils down the recipes to their essence where every single step and ingredient is condensed to Twitter’s maximum of 140 characters or fewer. Eat Tweet is the first ever Twitter book of recipes it is like a shorthand souschef. Part of the fun lies in decoding the author’s clever recipe tweets, each one a model of clarity and usefulness. But this one-stop compendium of curated recipes and food ideas is so much more. There are recipes from around the world, from Kashgar Noodles to Biscotti, as well as homey favorites like Garlic Chicken and Chocolate. In addition, Eat Tweet contains kitchen tips and techniques which are also 140 characters max and a lexicon for translating Twitterese cooking terms like s+p (salt and pepper) and tst (toasted). I think this idea was so clever because not only is it a book but the handle @cookbook still exists so it is constantly being updated. I think in today’s world it’s really important to be able to connect with people through a number of ways rather than just in one book which is why I will come up with something similar to this idea to stand alongside my cookbook. I think a more relevent platform for me to use would be Instagram seeing as though the essence of my project is graphic design.
23
Special Delivery by Matan Lamm Matan Lamm is a freelance Graphic Designer from Israe. His concept was to have a recipes book that brings the stories of the most special food ingredients in the world. I love his simplistic take on the idea. His illustrations are similar to what I had already been researching yet they are mainly pastel colours which he uses as the tone throughout the book. This adds a sense on cleanliness. The use of iconic symbols is really clever in that when I was originally looking at the book I could tell what the ingredients were and how they needed to be cooked, I then realised that the book wasn’t in English. He manages to tell the story of the recipe method through the use of graphic design and semiotics.
24
In Tutte le Salse by Alice Pesenti Alice Pesenti is a young editorial designer based in Madrid. This is a book of recipes for sauces in which all of the ingrediets are illustrated and handwritten. I really admire how boldly the ingrediets have been illustrated and presented as if they were just sitting on the kitchen counter, in no particular order, I also like that the names of the ingredients are sort of a part of the images, especially where they are written in white. This way of communication makes the reader feel more relaxed in my view, which is good because a lot of the time if there is a big list of ingedients, it can seem quite daunting.
25
Picture Cook: See. Make. Eat. by Katie Shelly Katie Shelly is a Visual Designer based in New York. Picture Cook started out as a bunch of doodles Shelly posted on the internet, and ended up as a hardcover book, published by Ulysses Press in November 2013. It has been reproduced in a few different languages due to it’s popularity. Shelly states that the recipes are not intended as precise culinary blueprints. Instead they are meant to inspire experimentation, improvisation and play in the kitchen. All of which I believe they do. This stlye of communication is a great way to get young people involved in cooking. The infographic style can be read and understood by anyone.
26
Next I looked at Nigel Slater’s book Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger. This is an award-winning biography of a childhood remembered through food vividly recreating daily life in 1960s suburban England. Slater is one of Britain’s most highly regarded food writers. His beautifully written story, warm personality and unpretentious, easy to follow recipes have won him a huge following. I read this book to get a better understanding of writing a cookbook that isn’t neccesarily for following a recipe but also used purely for pleasure. I think it works really well by associating stories with foods, which is something we all naturally do. Hopefully I can recreate this sense of being connected with the writer in my cookbook - without being a well known celebrity! He communicates well by each short chapter covering a different memory, cleverly using the conceit of food- the texture, smells and flavours to tell the story. I hope to be able to connect with the reader’s senses in the same way but by also using my own illustrations and
27
Another book I looked at was My Family Kitchen by Sophie Thompson. When I originally picked up the book I didn’t realise that Thompson was a celebrity, which to me proves that people don’t only look at Celebrity cookbooks. Thompson is an award-winning actress and winner of Celebrity Masterchef. My Family Kitchen combines four generations of favourite family recipes, from Granny Annie’s Orange and Ginger Chicken to Mum’s Spare Ribs. As well as recipes from friends, such as chocolate truffles from the actress Penelope Keith. The recipes were photographed in Sophie’s own kitchen and each one is relayed with her humour, warmth and vivaciousness. They are fuss-free, easy-to-follow and delicious. The original reason I picked up the book was the fact that it had pictures of authentic old recipes and family photographs. From the first sight the book seemed to be focused on sharing food with family and friends which is what I want for my cookbook. The way the book communicated all this from me just picking it up and glancing at it was really impressive.
28
Layouts As I researched into layouts by looking through my own cookbooks, family cookbooks, in shops and online there are a lot of reoccuring layouts. Modern cookbooks have a lot of high quality photographs of food that sometimes cover the double page spread, most of the time at least one whole page is covered, with the recipe and method opposite. Below I mocked up some of the more popular layouts that I came across. I think they are used so often because they are clear to read and have lots of space for aspirational photos. When deciding on my own layout, I want to try something different but at the same time I don’t want to move too far away from what people must like. I plan on having a subtle mix of photography and illustrations and so this will immediately make my layout different in that the balance between photographs, illustrations and text will have to be just right so it’s not too crowded.
29
Media Whilst researching I have noticed that for my cookbook to stand out, it will need to have an online presence. When we watch TV nowadays, every show has it’s own hashtag or handle to follow the conversation online. In my opinion, there is no reason why a book couldn’t do the same. Simply using hashtags for certain recipes or stories in my cookbook could make it a lot more popular. Especially using an Instagram account, people that use the cookbook could make their own food and upload photographs to show how their’s turned out. I think this would really give the cookbook a contemporary edge. Another way I could link the book to a website would be to include barcodes that can be scanned on a phone and take you to a certain page.
I found a really inspriring website called www.theydrawandcook. com. They Draw & Cook (TDAC) is the internet’s largest collection of illustrated recipes created by artists from around the world. It is where creative people share their love of food and art through illustration, which really relates to my project. I love that the illustrations are actually real recipes that you can look up and follow. The site even has a page where you can buy books that contain a hand picked selection of their favourite illustrated recipes from the TDAC collection.
30
Whilst looking at different types of media that can be used I found some really innovative ideas that people have made. For my own cookbook I think I will be sticking to the traditional style of a book but maybe using a different kind of paper, it was really interesting and eye opening to see the posibilites of what can be made. I may be able to incorporate aspects of what I have found into my cookbook. This publication is designed by Sebastian Needler, a designer based in Leeds, and aimed to work as a swatch book in a much more creative way. The design is inspired by traditional Italian cuisine and recipe books. The toppings are made using a range of different stocks to showcase the range that is on offer from Fedrigoni Printers. This innovative idea moves away from the traditional sample swatch book. Communicating the information in a much more relaxed and creative manor.
31
This is another example of an innovative design idea. Although it is a lot more subtle, it still stands out to me in it’s own way. The cookbook was designed and made by Anne Lee, a Graphic Designer based in Brooklyn. She wanted to create a cookbook that was vibrant, thematic and fun. Lee gathered eight recipes — all of which include lemon as an ingredient and made illustrations to accompany them. I think this is a clever idea for a hook, people instantly know what it’s about and whether they will like it. The cookbook also has a water resistant cover in case of inevitable spills whilst cooking. The part that I found the most appealing is that the binding allows the user to add their own recipes. I think tha having this feature makes the book a lot more usable for everyday people that love to cook - rather than having never-ending postit notes with ammendements! I also love that she incorporated the zest of the recipes into the colour scheme.
32
Food Photography Food photography is a still life specialisation of commercial photography, aimed at producing attractive photographs of food for a variety of uses including in advertisements, magazines, packaging, menus and cookbooks. Professional food photography is a collaborative effort, usually involving an art director, a photographer, a food stylist, a prop stylist and their assistants. All of which I will probably be doing on my own in my project. In advertising food photography is often used to exaggerate the attractiveness or size of the advertised food. This can sometimes be quite contraversial. Food photographs used to mainly be shot and composed in a manner similar to the way people were used to encountering their food, laid out on a table setting and shot from an overhead perspective. Stylists arranged the food to appear good from above, with the items arranged flat on the plate and clearly separated from each other. The next trend used romantic lighting, shallower angles and more props. Most recently, the popular trend in food photography is to present the food as simple, clean and as naturally as possible, with few props, often using effects such as selective focus, tilted plates, and extreme close-ups. This complements trends in professional cooking to make the food more visually interesting.
In addition to choosing, preparing and composing food, stylists use lots of techniques to make it appear as attractive as possible. These may include: - Creating steam with a combination of chemicals that give off smoke with the appearance of steam. - Spraying food with water or mixtures of water, corn syrup, or other liquids to keep it looking fresh. - Using a variety of browning agents to enhance the colour and brownness of cooked meats and poultry. - Using heavy cream instead of milk in bowls of cereal to prevent flakes from becoming soggy too quickly. - Blanching green vegetables to just bring up their bright colour, rather than cooking them completely. - Adding water to beverages so light will filter through better and add sparkle to the drink.
Jean Cazals
Jean Cazals is a London based food photographer, he gained his BA Hons. in Visual Communication at the LCP. Loving food and travel for years brought him naturally to turn his lens on food and lifestyle. Cazals was awarded ‘Best Food Photographer 2012’ as well as other awards. He has shot over 80 books. As an author and photographer Cazals was awarded the ‘Gourmand Best Dessert CookBook UK 2013’ award for his book ‘TeaTime’. He also does consultation and advise on book publishing for new projects. I really enjoy Cazals work, his approach is clean, graphic and moody, based on natural light, elegant styling and food presentation. His field of photography covers books as well as packaging, design, editorial, restaurants websites and advertising.
35
David Munns
David Munns is an award winning London based food and drink photographer. After completing a foundation course at Cat Hill, Munns went on to study photography at Bournemouth and Poole college of art and design. Shoreditch became his work place after returning to London in 1989, assisting a food and drink photographer, then quickly graduating from 2nd assistant to shooting for his own clients. Munns’ first job was shooting Keith Floyd for a Kingsmill commercial. Heset up his own studio in Clerkenwell in 1996 and has worked in the area ever since. His work is in a very clean and natural style as is what’s popular at the moment although I feel it has a lot more energy and vibrance than other food photography.
36
David Loftus
37
David Loftus is in my mind one of the most successful photographers I’ve looked at. He has work in the books of Jamie Oliver, Rachel Khoo, Gennaro Contaldo, Elizabeth David and April Bloomfield. His work with Jamie Oliver alone has resulted in international book sales in excess of 30 million copies. I love looking at his work as it gives off a feeling of relaxation, yet I find it playful at the same time. In addition to his food photography, Loftus has also shot fashion, portraits, landscapes and reportage for the likes of Red magazine, Traveller, Soho House, Collette Dinnigan, India Hicks and Pippa Middleton. I love the way his work grabs your attention and can make you feel as though you are there with him about to enjoy the delicious food.
As I fell in love with Loftus’ work so much, I decided to watch his YouTube video tutorials to help me learn more about food photography. So far, I have learnt about styling and composition, aperture and depth of field, backgrounds, lighting, lenses and what makes a great photograph. All of the videos are aournd 3 minutes long so are really easy to watch. They also have a bulletpoint summary which is really helpful. I think when I come to taking my own photographs I will have a much better knowledge of where to begin.
38
Portion Sizes Within my cookbook I would like to have an overall healthy vibe and I think an important part of healthy eating is to control portion sizes. I will subtly suggest correct portion sizes in the book without it being a main focus pointas this is not the theme of the book. I collected information from the NHS on what they suggest the adult’s reccommended daily allowance of foods are. “Reducing the portion sizes would help reverse the obesity epidemic, say researchers,” BBC News reports. The researchers, who pooled the results of more than 70 previous studies, found a link between portion size and overeating. Researchers found that increased portion size, packaging and the size of a plate led to people choosing larger amounts of food and eating more. It may be that the old saying “you have eyes bigger than your belly” rings true for some people. They eat what they are given, not what they need. For me this statement is really true, I was taught to eat everything on my plate and still today end up doing it even if I am full.
39
This is the reccommended daily energy requirement in kcals:
40
Content Survey
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
This content survey recieved 28 respondants ranging in gender and age. I think most of the feedback I recieved was expected but some people did give me a really good insight into how they think. I was happy and quite surprised that almost 80% of people said they would buy a non-celebrity cookbook. I was also happy with the fact that just over 70% of the people surveyed said they would sit and read a cookbook for pleasure with no intention of cooking. This proves that my idea could work and people might buy it. Unsurprisingly 19 out of 28 people said that their preferred way to look up a recipe would be online, this proves it is important for my project to have an online presence. A lot of people mentioned that efore they purchase a cookbook they want to know that it is simple to use in the way of they layout and recipes. Also, more people like to have a mixture of cuisines rather than a specific one. I now know which cuisines are most popular and will definatly include them in my book.
49
Final Thoughts
Now I feel I have thoroughly researched my chosen topic, I am confident to begin developing the project. I have learnt a lot throughout this process, especially about the history behind cookbooks which I find really interesting. I am happy with my content survey and found it very insightful. I will begin experimenting with new and different processes for my illustrations, prints and photographs. I will also come up with a relevant name and brand identity that relates to my target audience. I am looking forward to the final exhibition and having a range of products alongside my cookbook to give the viewers the real experience of what it is all about.
50