Growing up I helped my mother and grandmother cook for family gatherings. During this time, I built a closer relationship with them. This cookbook contains five recipes I learned from them. But on a deeper level, it encompasses childhood memories. I have also included five templates for this book to be passed down to the next generation so the book can grow. My goal is for the audience to think about their own experiences in the kitchen with their family like I did with mine.
Family relationships are very important in our lives. My family has made me into the person I am today. This book is a way for me to remember and document moments of my childhood. The book can be a keepsake for my relatives. I gravitate towards the digital world due to my career path. But I have learned how important it is to have tangible records of your life. This body of work has allowed me to bring aspects of the digital medium into the physical world.
I have created this book in three programs: Illustrator, Indesign and Photoshop. I decided to make this book digitally because of the knowledge I have gained during the past four years on these programs. The techniques I used to make parts of the book feel more homemade than digitally. I like the theme of combining the physical with the digital and I wanted to emphasize this idea in my work. The feeling you get from my book is a welcoming and intimate view on my family. Because all of my relatives grew up in Georgia, I made my graphics in a southern style.
You may not have grown up cooking with your family, but I do hope you feel a connection with my family through this book. Hopefully this work will inspire you to create memories with your relatives. Whether the memories are cooking or some other form, I am pleased to have a physical memento of my childhood that I can look back on in years to come. I also hope that my future family could add to it as well.