Irrelevant/less relevant research:
https://www.phaidon.com/store/cookbooks-food-and-drink
https://www.robbinamisilverberg.com/text-iles
https://www.taschen.com/en/books/art/08023/the-gourmand-s-egg-a-collection-of-stories-and-recipes
This zine design felt overwhelmed with too many ideas, which made its core purpose unclear. Additionally, its visual language didn’t align with the sense of nostalgia that underpins my enquiry and topic. It appeared overly modern and polished, lacking the rough, tactile quality often associated with recipes and cooking.
The format also failed to support the visual communication effectively. While it adopted a zine format, it gradually lost its connection to the essence of a recipe-based publication. Therefore, in the final version, I chose a slim 120mm by 200mm format, which resembles a warm, pocket-sized recipe book—more in tune with the tone and intent of the project.
Iteration 1- Fictional recipe book, main body design
When designing the main body, I re-scanned and reorganized my grandmother’s handwritten recipes to visually fit the style of 1980s notebooks—an intentional choice, as she often used old, half-filled, yellowing notebooks for jotting things down. The sequence of the recipes was arranged to reflect the fictional protagonist’s journey through three phases: migration, adaptation, and integration.
However, the strong presence of handwritten Chinese made it difficult for non-Chinese-speaking audiences—who make up the majority of my viewers—to understand the narrative. This language barrier hindered the clarity of the fictional storyline and ultimately weakened the overall communication. As a result, I moved away from using fictional narratives and purely handwritten Chinese recipes in the subsequent development of the project.
Edited on 01:07, 23, May 2025
This documents the design directions and visual iterations explored during Projection 1, which were ultimately not adopted.
Enquiry Journey For Projection 1
During the Projection 1 stage, my enquiry underwent several major shifts. It began with a focus on the traces of objects, such as shopping receipts, then moved to a broader interest in objects themselves, and eventually evolved into the current focus on food as a specific category of object.
Throughout this process, my enquiry has been continuously refined from a broad concept, but the consistent focus has been on the memories, personal identity, and emotional value carried and recorded by objects—and food in particular.
Final direction – food