KEY LIME PIE TARTS RECIPE BOOK
Adobe InDesign • Adobe Photoshop • Procreate
Project Overview:
For this project, I used Adobe InDesign to create a four-page recipe layout of a dish of my choosing. As someone who has an enormous sweet tooth and loves to cook with their family, I chose a house-hold fan favorite to design: key lime tarts.
I began the process using Pinterest to create a mood board of recipe layouts I liked as well as photography that inspired me. I was drawn to recipes with large imagery and clean, minimal ingredient pages. Some recipes I found were garnished with small doodles and decorative graphics which made the pages feel more inviting and approachable.
I wanted to keep the color palette of my recipe very natural and true to key limes. I chose shades of green to work with and thought of bringing in a shade of brown somewhere to allude to the crust.
Layout and Type:
The project began in Adobe InDesign with a 7.5x9 inch art board. I used a variety of grids on my pages to have a combination of asymmetrical and symmetrical layouts. I kept my ingredient page symmetrical but used asymmetry for my "About the Type" and cover page. This project underwent a rigorous critiquing cycle which left me with multiple iterations. Below are early versions of my recipe layout.
Throughout the design process I conducted research on my typefaces Proxima Nova and New Kansas to include on the last page of the recipe. I chose these two typefaces to make the recipe approachable and fun, while still being clean-cut. The bubbly New Kansas font contrasts the minimal and simple Proxima Nova sans-serif font.
Version 1: Photography is placeholder stock imagery
Version 2: Photography is placeholder stock imagery
Photography and Design Details:
I staged recipe ingredients similarly to my design inspiration. I wanted to use food as the focal point and decoration in my shots. I kept a neutral color palette to accentuate the pop of color supplied by the green limes. My goal was to create breathable and fresh photos to entice viewers.
Before the last iteration of my recipe pages, I replaced the stock imagery with my favorite shots from the photo spreads I had taken. I also recreated my lime graphics using Procreate. I kept an overlay of the shape of a lime but gave the outline a more organic, wiggly feel. The outlines alone felt lackluster, so I created a watercolor version of a lime to add to the background to create more visual interest.
Final Recipe Design:
