Waterstones - baking and recipe books
In order to get an idea of what is currently available in terms of cookbooks and recipe books, I decided to venture into Waterstones, where there was an extremely large selection of food and baking related publications. There were a number of books that stood out to me in terms of visuals, however, I noticed that a large number of the baking books tended to circle rather girly and sweet aesthetics. Although these covers were lovely, my audience would be new generation bakers, made up of both males and females. I can only assume that such books would put men off from purchasing them as they definitely target the female sector much more strongly.
Mary Berry and The Great British Bake Off had their own section due to it's vast popularity at the moment. The front cover of the Bake Off book really stood out to me for a number of reasons. It is definitely appealing to both genders due to it's choice of colours and also because of the vintage pattern used. The publication itself was hardback, and had an interesting texture, making use of foiling on it's title which made it that little bit more special. It must also be noted that it was nice to see the use of humour on the front, which would definitely attract customers.
The book on the left is for the Hummingbird Bakery, which is based in London, specialising in American style cakes and desserts. What attracted me to this book, wasn't necessarily the cover itself, but the fact that there was a sticker on the front exclaiming that the customer would receive free gift wrap with the purchase of the book. In order to find out more about this, I went to their website, where I found a very particular aesthetic. They state that with a number of their books, they come gift wrapped, or with free incentives. Below you can see how they display both their baked goods and their publications.
Whilst on the website, I also found that they have a 'Cake Days' iPhone App, offering this description:
'If you love baking, you'll never know what you did before the Cake Days iPhone app came along! Discover how easy it is to bake indulgent Hummingbird Bakery treats at home.
Any technologically equipped baker can choose from 85 beautifully laid-out recipes taken from the immensely popular Cake Days cookbook. Scroll through full colour photos of your favourite cupcakes, layer cakes, whoopie pies, cookies and more to make any day a cake day. Baking advice and demonstration videos are included to make this gorgeously presented cooking app as useful as it is beautiful.
With clap-to-turn pages to maintain a squeaky clean screen and a shopping list function where you can organise your must-have baking ingredients, the Cake DAys App is like having the bakery experts by your side as you bake.'
Peggy Porschen takes on an extremely feminine approach for her books, website and products. She is known for her 'irresistibly pretty and elegant' designs, with an extremely enviable client list that includes celebs, the Royals and members of high society. She baked for the wedding of Kate Moss and Jamie Hince, Elton John's White Tie and Tiara Ball, Stella McCartney's wedding and parties for Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow. The shop front matches the aesthetics of her book, with baby pink exterior.
These aesthetics have been applied to a number of products on her online shop, including textiles, cake stands and books.
Yotam Ottolenghi's book had a really simply but effective front cover, making use of foiling for that extra special feel. The linear illustrations and use of colour made this book stand out to me, however, how effective this would be in terms of a recipe book must be considered. It is debatable as to whether or not it is ever a good idea to choose a white cover, as the situation the book would be put in is extremely messy.
In terms of the book not in context, the bright colours work extremely well against the stark white background, making the illustrations and the main titles really stand out.
Nigel Slater's books are always great to look at. Although not necessarily baking related, it's good to see a range of different publications, that may offer something different or more relevant to my brief. The use of illustrations is extremely effective, as is the hand rendered type, both done by Alice Tait. It is done in a way that doesn't pigeonhole it's customers, appealing to a wide ranging audience. Alice Tait has been commissioned for Vogue, the Saatchi Gallery's 'Little Black Jacket' exhibition, and book covers for Random House. She has also produced work for Jamie Oliver, Waitrose and Kevin McCloud.
Illustrations by Alice Tait.
Below, I looked at some of the products that were placed alongside the cookery books. This included gift bags, notebooks and gift wrap. As I will be producing a range of products, it's interesting to see what is sold with these types of products.
Spines
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