For this redesign of Cook’s Illustrated magazine for my Publication Design class, I aimed to keep the spirit of the original design with its lush, painted still lives by Robert Papp and meticulous, delicate back covers by John Burgoyne that were familiar to me from paging my mom’s well-worn copies of Cook’s. At the time of this project, I had recently learned about Cipe Pineles, the graphic designer and art director who was the first woman inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. I was fascinated by Pineles’ work in the posthumously-published Leave Me Alone With the Recipes and by the way illustration can capture the essence of cooking. As editor Wendy McNaughton says, “Illustration can convey a love of food and aesthetic in a deeply personal, sensual, accessible way that other mediums just cannot.”
I chose casual illustrations and vibrant color palette to bring joy, spontaneity, and approachability to the redesign—the sense that you were about to prepare and eat something delicious—paired with unfussy type on a baseline grid to be an organized and legible reference for the dedicated cook. Headings are set in Ardoise Std and body copy is set in Mencken Std Text.
