Senior Thesis: Savoring Moments
This thesis project revolves around curating a diverse cookbook filled with unique recipes contributed by individuals. Each participant is given a dedicated spread, featuring their recipe alongside a personal memory associated with it. To enhance the storytelling, each spread is accompanied by a customized illustration designed to complement the memory shared.
Instructor: Scott Laserow
Spring 2024
Introduction
Throughout my four years, there were moments when I felt homesick, longing for a nice, warm home-cooked meal and missing the presence of my family. It was during these times that I found comfort in preparing traditional Filipino foods. The smell and taste instantly transported me back to my childhood, providing a sense of connection and comfort.
The strong connection between food and memory stems from our tendency to associate food with emotional experiences and events. As we eat, our brains not only register the taste and smell of the food but also absorb the context and emotions tied to the experience.
As an illustrator and designer, I wanted to create a cookbook that contains recipes and illustrations that tell a story and takes you back to a cherished time. This is a cookbook that celebrates both my college community and my growth as a designer.
Research
For my project, I wanted to gather recipes from a diverse range of individuals with different culinary preferences, cultural backgrounds, and personal stories. To achieve this, I designed a flyer and advertised my project around campus, on social media, and even in my work group chats. After three weeks of outreach, I was able to get twenty one submissions and start the project!
I conducted extensive research on various cookbook layouts and experimented with multiple sketches, considering whether to include individuals, the dish, or both. I even toyed with the idea of a comic format but found that the lines could be distracting.
Process & Challenges
After experimenting with different compositions, I concluded that for spreads featuring people, I wanted to ensure that the surrounding elements did not detract from the beauty of the scene. Initially, I thought every spread should include people, but after completing a few scenes, I realized how complex and time-consuming this approach was. It was challenging to gather reference photos from participants or to find stock images that closely matched the actual memories. At a certain point, I decided, for efficiency’s sake, to mainly focus on creating spreads that featured just the dish and its ingredients.
Click the images to see the process videos!
In these spreads, I thoughtfully created compositions that lead the viewer’s eye smoothly across the page, making sure there was enough space for text. Additionally, I incorporated two types of recipe layouts: a full spread bleed featuring the actual dish, and a one-page bleed with an illustrated memory involving the individuals. This design choice maintains a consistent pace and allows for more visual balance throughout the book.
Cover & Chapter Spreads
Since this a unique cookbook that focuses on memories, I organized the recipes into distinct chapters based on their relationship to memory.
Cultural Connection highlights recipes that center around one's cultural heritage, featuring traditional dishes that hold significant cultural importance.
Emotional Significance contains recipes are selected to evoke feelings of nostalgia and resonate with our emotions, creating a profound connection to the past.
Tradition showcases recipes that are typically prepared during specific occasions such as holidays, birthdays, or anniversaries, reflecting the importance of tradition and ritual in our lives.
For the cover and chapter title spreads, I opted for a more subtle approach, revealing just the silhouettes of ingredients to tease the illustrations.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this cookbook not only showcases my growth as a designer and illustrator but also serves as a memento of my time as an undergraduate at Temple University. It represents the community I was part of, a piece of which I will carry forward into the next chapter of my life. The remarkable individuals I met and the experiences I gained have profoundly shaped me into the person I aspire to be. For this reason, I dedicate my thesis to the unforgettable friends and mentors I encountered at Temple.