Brief

"Design a series of ten herb-based recipe cards and design and build a package to hold them."

Research

For this project, I conducted the majority of my research in traditional recipe book design. I studied elements of the visual hierarchy, phrasing of copy, ingredient formatting, and included information to inform my designs.

Furthermore, I interviewed colleagues and acquantances familiar with recipe formatting to determine common issues with both digital and print recipe designs. From this, I was able to incorporate a more user-friendly experience in my final results.

Development

Recipe Cards

In developing my recipe cards, I identified a target demographic of college students like myself, and as such, adhered to the following hierarchy:

  1. Recipe Title
  2. "At-a-glance" Information
  3. Ingredients/Equipment
  4. Preparation
  5. Subsidiary Information

This hierarchy allows for users to cull recipes by their requirements easily; users will first search for an appetizing recipe (recipe title), select by their current energy and available time (difficulty & preparation time), check for feasability of creating the recipe (ingredients & equipment), and finally proceed to preparation.

I developed a typographic system using Akzidenz-Grotesk sans-serif headings, Sentinel serif copy, and structural rules to organize information.

Packaging

I opted to create a robust packaging design using acrylic and a tabbed card system, inspired by manila folders. I first created a mockup using blender to get the general idea formulated, then used CAD software to develop the final design. The the final piece was fabricated using a lasercutter and analog construction methods.