OUGD405 - Research, Collect, Communicate: Product

We had a critique on Friday, where we laid out our final pieces and the tutors looked at them. I was really pleased with the feedback that I got for my work:

• Fulfils the brief
• Clear and simple
• Good use of infographic
• Off white stock is nice with the muted colours
• Has potential to go further

To go further with this I thought that I could use more recipes in the book, or add more sections like vegetarian. I could have thought of more recipes to include because I had read a book which included a lot of recipes from that era, and as I like cooking myself I could have easily adapted them. My Grandma also made a lot of suggestions about what she used to eat as a child during the rationing period. However, the reason that I didn't include anymore was because I thought 10 recipes would be an appropriate amount, having two recipes for each section in the book, as I had to create illustrations for them and work out how many servings they would make, the quantity of ingredients and the method for them.

When I researched other books from that time which were cookbooks, they also included sections about mending clothes, and other various make do and mend methods and tips which women used to help save on other areas in their lives, rather than just food. I could have done this, but the part I was most interested in was the food aspect, and I think that would have been too much to do as it is a very big subject, and I don't think it would flow as much.

To make it more professional I could have added a publisher's logo and a barcode, but that wasn't something I wanted to focus on in the book, it was more about the infographics and the subject that I had researched.

As it was mainly recipes which you could use from the produce grown in your own garden, I could have added some gardening tips at the beginning of the book, or little tips on each recipe to help people learn about it. However, I was aiming it at women who already knew how to cook, and just wanted to learn or remember the recipes that they used to eat, or their parents used to eat. Also, it was only so popular to have your own allotments during the war because food wasn't being imported from other countries, whereas now that is not the case and people can easily go to the supermarket.