My solutions to the cookbook design brief:
This cookbook design brief was a fairly open one which allowed me to be a bix flexible in its design. Though it was primarily a typesetting brief, I wanted to take this as an opportunity to experiment with editorial design and exercise some of my other skills including illustration. I had the chance to try out bookbinging techniques (coptic binding in this case) to focus on the tactile aspect of cookbooks and reinforce the more hand-made artistic feel to this particular design. Additionally it allows for the book to open easily and stay that way whilst cooking.
One of the things about this particular cookbook is its focus on different ingredients. There are 30 ingredients which is the title of the cookbook as well. For this reason I've decided to focus on colour-coding each ingredient to make the book easier to navigate as well as detailed watercolour illustrations of each key ingredient. Each subsequent recipe will have a the edge of the page colour-coded in the same colour which can be seen below.
Other features I wanted to introduce in this cookbook include a flap on every photo of the finished dish and the ingredient list of each recipe as a series of post-its. The photos of the finished dishes can be lifted to reveal a little story written about that particular recipe on the underside as well as a pocket for the user to store their own revisions to the recipe along with notes, photos, etc. It will also allow for an illustration of the ingredients in that recipe to be on display. The post-it format of the ingredient list allow for the reader to peel off the list when they go to the store and/or share the recipe. These are demonstrated with the 'Salad of Avocado' recipe in the 'Lemon and Lime' section at the bottom.