Till now, I have yet to show you guys the work that goes on “behind the scenes” as to how I am putting my logo together. As a designer I’ve been taught and nutured into the system of having a sketchbook full of rough ideas and drawings that will help me in being able to find inspiration for a design.
These are some of my rough ideas, experiments and thoughts for the Taste Of London Logo:
IDEA 1:
USING DIFFERENT ELEMENTS OF WHAT IN MY OPINION MAKES UP LONDON (GOING FOR THE OBVIOUS) TO CREATE THE LOGO
IDEA 2:
LOOKING MORE TOWARDS AN ANIMATED DESIGN INCORPORATING ONE OF THE 5 SENSES TASTE AND ELEMENTS OF LONDON INTO A FUN AND EXCITING LOGO
IDEA 3:
LOOKING AT THE NAME TAST OF LONDON AS PART OF THE LONDON UNDERGROUND SYSTEM WHICH WE ALL USE AND KNOW. MAYBE THE ‘O’ COULD BE A PLATE?
IDEA 4:
IDEA 5:
IDEA 6:
Ok so towards the end of last week things took a different course, things which could not have been helped or avoided. It first started with two volunteers who I was to meet to shoot for the documentary cancelling on me. Now where you would think the bad news ended there, things only got worse as on the weekend I developed a severe attack of tonsillitis where I found my self not being able to swallow, eat, I was bleeding internally (i’ll spare you the gory bits) and finally I could not speak. Some great weekend huh!!
These are unforeseen circumstances that I have come to terms with and realise happens when you least expect them. They are things which cannot be avoided so therefore the best thing for me to do was to rest recuperate and tackle other areas of the project..
So I spent majority of the days sleeping but then begun working on the template for the Taste Of London book that will be accompanying the documentary. Also as it was the Easter weekend approaching I was really interested in doing an Easter special blog but focusing more on Good Friday.
Good Friday is the most solemn time of Holy Week for Christians. It is the symbol of a closing to the fasting period (Lent). It is also the celebration of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and death.and because of this christians do not eat any meat or flesh of any animal but fish as a sign of remembrance for the act of cleansing committed on the cross.
So I sought to the public to find out who would be making a fish dish on this particular day. This was a great idea as it created an opportunity to see the different types of fish dishes people would make in their act or remembrance.
Happy Easter ✞
This is a Good Friday special and these are their uploads:
FISH DISH 1
‘FISH OMELETTE SERVED WITH POTATO CHIPS’
FISH DISH 2
‘SALMON DRESSING SERVED WITH POTATOES AND GREEN BEANS’
FISH DISH 3
‘SALT FISH ON THE BONE’
FISH DISH 4
‘TILAPIA AND BREAM FISH SERVED WITH RICE AND STEW GRAVY’
My quest in search for the “Essence Of Home Cooking” takes us to the south east parts of London to share a food experience with Helen Graves .
Helen is a health psychologist in her profession but in the last few years she stumbled onto a new found passion as a side hobby which has received an online and wide public coverage from the press and media (such as Channel 4 and the Guardian) and inspired fellow food bloggers.
Originally from Oxford Helen now lives in peckham and shares her story on her new found love for Peckham since moving from her home town. She talks about Peckham in relation to the people, the environment, flavour, the diversity and but more importantly THE FOOD which embodies what her blog is all about, “Capturing the aromas of Peckham”. THIS IS HER FOOD STORY.
Each dish is like an art piece, conjured from recipes in books taken from Peckham’s public library, suggestions from blog followers and experimentation through inspiration.
For this experience Helen decides to make a dish called Salt Fish Fritters served with a Sweetcorn Salsa side dish which oozes with spice, colour and flavour as her new found love. PECKHAM.
To view her food creations and follow her food creations for inspiration to spice up your own home cooked meals, make sure to check out her blog - FOOD STORIES. www.helengraves.co.uk
Sweet Corn Salsa Mix
Salt Fish Mix
Salt fish batter mix which contains the salt fish, mixed with milk, some eggs, onions, scotch bonnet chili pepper and flour.
The mix is then dipped into a heated frying pan to create the golden brown delicious Salt fish batter.
Getting to share a food story with Helen was a real privilege. It was good to see how her cooking creations come to life.
INFLUENCED BY THE SOUNDS AND AROMA OF PECKHAM - SALT FISH FRITTERS
Salt Fish Fritter Batter Mix:
Recipe: Salt fish, Milk, Onions, Flour, Egg, Scotch bonnet chili pepper
Sweet Corn Salsa:
Recipe: Sweet corn, Spring onions, Red pepper, Lime Juice, Coriander and Red chili pepper.
By the time I had reached the third food experience I had pretty much ironed out a system to which the documentaries would run on sticking to my rules and guidelines which I created.
The best thing about Lyndon’s documentary experience is that it showed me that within the guidelines I created I also had a lot of freedom to experiment with different shooting styles. This was a good thing as it meant that each video would have its own differentiation based on location, use of technique in filming and visual creativity but still ensuring to maintain the same flow of structure always.
Overall I was really excited about filming Lyndon’s food experience as this was a joint family contribution.
So while moving forward with editing raw footage of the shoots i’ve been doing over the past week of the ‘Taste Of London Documentary’, I have been thinking to find out from the public what in their opinion is the real essence of home cooking?
This question had been inspired by this project amongst numerous amount of research that I have looked into from food documentaries, blogs, and recently an interview video recently posted by Helen Grove (Food blogger and owner of the blog ‘Food Stories’) where she features in an in depth interview trying to establish if there really is such a thing a “British Food” and it really got me to develop on my thoughts about what I want to discover with this project.
So I put the question out to the public and here are some of their responses:
Q: WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF HOME COOKING?
A: Cleanliness, Perfection, Quality.
A: The ideas and distinctive taste and flavours you can add to a dish, experimenting-the expression of oneself through the art of food
A: Going away to university and you only realise how much you miss your mother’s (or father if they’re the cook) dishes as soon as you’re not eating them every day.
A: Fresh and old produce, cooked to the taste of those who live in a particular home. I don’t think there’s a general home cooking law. The essence is that of each family or household.
A: Comfort, enjoyment, enviornment, for some quality time with friends and loved ones, where the begining of a creation is started and perfected. Some of the best dishes are created from home :)
A: If your food is cooked with LOVE, the people who eat it could quite easily LOVE you.
A: Its the senses the ability to walk through the door and smell food which bring back memories to make your mouth water!!!
A: It’s all about experimentation and passing down recipes. For example taking grandma’s old recipe and mixing in something new, something different. More than that, best meals are made over some good ol’ fashioned mother/daughter (males can get in there too of course) bonding. Also taking ingredients from different cultures and blending them up to get exotic and contrastingly pleasant home cooked meals. Lastly…eating together adds to the experience. :)
What do you think?
I loved the original dish concept I used in the ’Taste Of London’ logo. I wanted to incorporate the essence of food into the typeface which would give a simple yet effective visual representation of what the project/documentary was about without giving too much away.
To secure the future of this design I decided to seek the opinion of the public. Having received a bit of feed back from a few fellow individuals, one advice that was given and seemed to be majority of the few asked was to refine the plate dish within the london text as it took attention from the rest of the design.
So back to the drawing board for refinements.
Here are the modified versions of the original logo.
Logo Idea 3 Modified:
Logo Idea 3 Modified:
It was also brought to my attention as an idea to maybe incorporate more of cutlery into the typeface (font or text as non designers may refer to it by)
Logo Developmental Idea - Logo in its simplest form
Logo Developmental Idea - Simple format logo with text
We are invited into the home of the Woods family to experience what was promised to be a very tasteful encounter with a twist.
Lyndon is a research manager working in the medical science sector. After regular busy day at work, Lyndon focuses all his attention in making sure his families needs are met.
Husband to wife Quilyan and Father of two girls (NAMES), Lyndon is ‘The Family Man’.
He invites us into his home to experience a meal with him and his family, sharing food
Lyndon and family.
He also shares his experiences of being a Vegan (a person who does not eat meat or flesh of any kind from an animal) in a house of people who do eat meat.
As he is the main cook in the household he faces being in a position where he has to prepare seperate meals because of the different food preferences in the house. Now this means he not only has to make meals for himself and anyone in the family that shares his preference as a vegan in the family, but he also has to make meat dishes which means coming in contact with meat.
Now at this point most of you would question how this may be possible as the view we have of a vegan is a person who does not like meat especially raw meat let alone coming in contact with one in food preparation.
Lyndon on the other hand puts aside his food preferences and braves the ordeal of making a meat dish to feed his family. After years of doing this, he has now developed a high tolerance towards coming in contact with meat or making a meat dish.
As he is the main cook in the house, he has to put all food rituals aside to feed his family and shares an insight on this encounter.
We are welcomed into his home with a lovely Oxtail soup served with mixed assortments such as Plantain, Sweet Potatoes, Potatoes, Green Banana, all to the flavour of the food.
Ingredients for OxTail Soup
Side dish assortments to be served with the soup such as Plantain, Sweet Potatoes, Potatoes, Green Banana. Carrots are also added in the soup to add a little bit more flavour.
‘Chopped spring onions’
‘Sweet corn’
Screen shot from video footage for ‘Taste of London Documentary’
Screen shot from video footage for ‘Taste of London Documentary’
Screen shot from video footage for ‘Taste of London Documentary’
TRINIDAD OXTAIL SOUP SERVED WITH A SIDE SIDH OF ASSORTMENTS
Recipe: Ox tail, Fine leaf thyme, Garlic, Spring onions, Coriander, Carrots, Whole Kernel corn, Split peas, Dumplings (plain flour, salt), Seasoning salt (to taste), Black pepper, freshly ground, Cooking butter (Golden ray) , Water
Side Dish: Plantain, Sweet Potatoes, Potatoes, Green Banana,
The best parts about having a live project that sets out to understand the reasons why people eat what they eat in their homes is that after each experience you feel more informed about a particular culture than you did before as well as leaving with a filled stomach with freshly cooked home food.
You also get a sense of a personal connection with the people you meet. These people volunteering to be a part of the Taste of London experience are not celebrities or chefs, they are normal people living within London. Their stories are genuine, relatable and accompanied by a food dish so you are really able to connect with their story.
Arriving at Lydia’s house in the late afternoon to conduct the cooking experience did worry me as I had lighting issues in the first documentary (‘Two Friends Share a Meal’) where I lost natural lighting and did not want to have a repeat of the same situation. Fortunately for me her kitchen was very well lit with a large florescent light bulb that acted as a substitute once the natural light started to fade away. It was not as good as using natural light but it did illuminate the room enough for the film to capture the cooking experience clearly.
Lydia welcomes us into her home by preparing a traditional french meal served with a cocktail.
Lydia originally born in guadeloupe is a woman who first lived in France having left her home town in Guadeloupe to follow a career path in Paris before finally settling down in London in Hillingdon where she has lived for the last 6 years.
Throughout the experience in conversations I get to know more about her. We talked about her life in Guadeloupe and her journey from home to Paris and finally to London and how difficult the language barrier must have been for her upon her arrival in the United Kingdom.
I even managed to learn something new apart from the food being made. As a part time hobby she studied Oenology (the study wine) in her past time and as I do love to have the occasional odd wine with meals from time to time, I received a little education on the types of wine to have with certain meals (for example white wine being a better option to go for when eating meals like fish and red wine belonging to meals such as beef)
For her experience she decided to make a meal called ‘Boeuf Bourgignon (Beef Bourgignon as refered to in english).
It is a stew prepared with beef that is soaked in red wine, traditionally normally red burgundy (preferably cooking wine, but some prefer to use non cooking) and beef broth generally flavoured with garlic, onions and a bouquet garni but in this instance is replaced by using household ingredients such as mixed herbs, thyme, herbs de provence all which can be picked up from your local supermarket.
With respect to vegetarians, please look away now for the images below are of raw meat and may offend you.
Towards the end onions and mushrooms are also added to give the Bourgignon that extra factor of flavour.
Recipe: Dry ginger powder, mixed herbs, beef meat, thyme, parsley, cloves, mushrooms, dried chives, carrots, browning, onions, herbs de provence, black peppers, garlic, salt, all seasoning and lime.
Also to complement the meal Lydia made is a cocktail desert-like dish called ’Ananas aux vin’ which in english is called ‘Pineapple in wine’.
A lovely beverage that would be perfect for a lovely summer relaxation in the garden, thats providing our summer this year is sunny. Fingers crossed.
Recipe: Almond essence, Vanilla essence, Ground Cinnamon, Ground Nutmeg, Brown sugar, Pineapple, Red wine and water
This is a beverage made of the fermented juice from the pineapple fruit, usually containing from 10 to 15 percent of alcohol by volume (in this case, she also used wine as her alcoholic beverage choice). This is also a traditonal beverage.
BOEUF BOURGIGNON SERVED WITH ANANAS AUX VIN (PINEAPPLE IN WINE)
This was Lydia’s addition of flavour as a cook in her own home to the dish she was preparing. I was also privileged to get to know more about her as prior to this documentary I knew so little about her, well of course I knew her name was Lydia but that was as far as it went.
Being the first shoot of the documentary, I was quite nervous but anxious as to how it would turn out.
I had never until this project worked on any media productions before apart from a few home videos so my knowledge and the vision I had for the documentaries were solely based on my creativity, my vivid imagination and research of current and existing documentaries to understand the foundation and logic behind making a documentary.
The first thing I noticed upon meeting Carole and Isabelle something that I realised I would be facing a lot through this project is nerves. The volunteers in these documentaries are not actors so it is very understanding as to the levels of nerves when in front of the camera.