Graphic Design/HTA

As a new years resolution here at GD/HTA we decided to become better cooks! The list of culinary delights so far mustered up by the team contain a mix of mint chocolate truffles, lemon keylime trifle, various puff pastry pies, raspberry sorbet and a very soggy eton mess! From this we noticed the difference in the really well designed cook books out there and the damn right rubbish ones. Take a look at the following covers to wet your appetite…

All hail Queen Julia Childs – traditional book cover with a fluer de le design, hard back book with jacket cover originally printed in 1961 and still being re-printed today after the film Julie & Julia.

From Nigel Slater – a hard back case bound book with foil debossed lettering underneath the book jacket. A book about vegetables with a nice choice of typeface and an image of some cabbage altered to look like an x-ray.

Simple, fresh and straight to the point. From the choice of typeface to the use of solid colour, its a retro design with a modern feel. We likey!

Eat London is your guide to all the best places to eat around town with a wrap around cover that doubles as a map pin pointing the restaurants location.

You would be forgiven at first glance thinking that this was a science book due to the use of the pie chart. The modern design and layout of The Flavour Thesaurus means it has a proud place on your book shelf. The pink edges on each page work well for an extra touch of design.

Look away vegetarians or those with a weak stomach! Nose To Tail Eating is classic british cookbook with a traditional design that is also modern.

Did the cover take 30 minutes to design? Nice use of foil blocking though. Clean layout, simple and easy to use but none of the recipes take 30 mins try an hour and 30 mins!

Design by Penguin’s senior cover designer Coralie Bickford-Smith recently promoted on Creative Review’s blog. The text is embossed and the drawings are relevant to the period of writing concerned. Except the book is so nice I don’t want to use it to cook with – what if it gets dirty mid–cooking?? Best to order 2 copies. One for show, one for cooking.