Reflecting on work- RECIPE BOOK

The finished book:

front cover

Back cover

My work for negotiated study one has been largely based around the idea of producing a recipe book. I am obsessed with cookery books, I just adore them.The market for interesting recipe books is huge, and cooking is fashionable and popular like never before. At bedtime, I either settle down with fashion magazines (hence The Elves and the Shoemaker!), or recipe books. I am greatly inspired by the idea of 'lifestyle' magazines and books, and enjoy the interactive elements of such things.
My other love is cake. I adore cake! I love eating it, looking at it, drawing it..I love everything about it! As such, I began by thinking I wanted to produce a book about baking. A modern, creative and beautiful book about making cakes. I came up with lots of ideas, but nothing felt right.
I changed direction. As I mentioned earlier, I love recipe books of all varieties. For me though, a recipe book is not just a book containing things to make. I love the idea of a 'kitchen diary', a real, useful, tangible object which can be used in a real kitchen. Books of this nature, as my research into this market proves, are not just about aesthetics. They have to be useful, purpose-made and functional. They contain folders, pages for notes, things to use. This is what I wanted to create! I set about designing my book. Making the artwork was the easy part!
I was concerned about how to put the book itself together, and this highlighted my technological ignorance! When I'm afraid of something, I shy away from it. I knew I had to get to grips with InDesign....but I was so nervous.
So......I headed down to the hub.
I cannot thank Dave Kelly enough for his patience and help. I was such a pain! I think he felt relieved when I finished all my Macmillan work...but then I reappeared! He helped me so much and I'm so gratetful. I worked slowly but meticulously and am so proud. I scanned in backgrounds, used different layouts and worked with cut outs for the front cover, to create a really lovely product. I am delighted. But it was hard going!! The book took about three weeks to create from start to finish, and I truly worked from 10-5 without breaks for the majority of that time! I regret not using computers to aid my work earlier, but I worked tirelessly to master what I required eventually.
The book is spiral bound which I think is a really nice touch, and lends a level of professionalism to the final product. It involved several trips to Staples, where the staff were so helpful. I was so impressed by the service, and felt that the prices were reasonable.
Overall, I am so proud of this project. There are areas I'd like to improve on, but generally I feel I've done really well to beat some of my technology demons, and to produce a real, tangible, working product!