‘Pam’s Handwritten Recipes’ was a lovely book to design and a heartfelt tribute to Pam herself. As a keen chef, Pam over the years kept scribbled down recipes in her exercise books, recipes of which delighted all of her family and friends, and who all wanted to have copies of after Pam sadly passed away.
David, Pam’s husband and daughter Emma collated all the recipes into a Word Document and wanted me to create a recipe book that was spiro-bound, A5 in size, printed on sustainable paper, with a wipeable acetate cover, and for the design to reflect Pam’s actual exercise books.
After seeing photos of the books I got to work on the designs, added in photos to clearly show the separated sections, and carefully chose illustrations to bring the recipes to life. The recipe book only required one round of minimal amends and it was straight off to Sustainable Print – who I heard, printed a few copies off themselves to try the recipes!
I was thrilled to hear that the recipe book has also raised many charity donations in Pam’s memory, but what pleased me the most, was to hear how happy Pam herself would have been to see this book. It was an absolute honour to create.
Having spent more years than I care to remember as an advertising copywriter I think I initially told Rachel I was probably her worst possible client. I wanted a book designing. I had the words. I had an idea of the cover and typestyle. Above all I knew the exact tone of the finished publication I had in mind. Fortunately for me Rachel acknowledged all my dictats – but then used her skills to interpret these in far more imaginative ways than I could ever have come up with. The end result was exactly right for so many reasons. I can’t thank her enough.