art & design inspiration: vintage cookbooks

these are some of my favorite cookbooks off my grandparent's shelf! all the books i'm showing today are vintage and from the 1960s or 1970s. i had so much fun going through these books!!

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Today, I'm sitting in the breakfast nook of my grandparent's house going through their cookbook collection! These are all vintage books, mostly from the 1960s and 1970s. My favorite thing to do every time I visit is dig through all their cool old collections. With these cookbooks, I'm mainly discussing the books' graphic design, illustration, (some typography), photography, and style.

The first book I'm sharing is the Better Homes cookbook (a classic). I love the way each section has a full spread photo on its title page. The staged food photography perfectly describe the 1960s era, with its colorful food, fancy cakes, and elaborate table displays. The color palette of each picture is so vibrant, but the texture of the images gives them a soft touch. A lot of the photos are black and white and describe step-by-step instructions on how to make something. The layout design of this book perfectly blends the text, photography, and illustration. My favorite thing about this cookbook is the letter I found in the back. It includes a picture from my grandparent's wedding. I also found a catalogue for antique furniture.

Next is the Betty Crocker New Picture Cookbook. This one has an AMAZING cover! the cover is color-blocked with shiny pictures of food in each square, and it includes a funky font. The illustrations in this book are very much in the style of what was popular during the 1960s. The drawings are mainly pen & ink and are quirky and textured. The illustrations in this book focus heavily on people, rather than food.

Then I show Pillsbury's Best 1000 Recipes: Best of the Bake-Off Collection. This book has beautiful endpapers! Stored on top of this book is a stack of mini cookbooks that came with different kitchen appliances. These are also all vintage, and are very fun to look through! It's like traveling back in time.

Now it's time to look at fondue books. Betty Crocker's Dinner in a Dish has my favorite book cover out of all the books in this collection! I love the way the front and back mirror each other, and the vibrant green against the copper dish is stunning. I also enjoy the combination of photography and illustration, it kind of feels like collage. And Better Homes and Garden's Fondue and Tabletop Cooking book is very 1970s. Compared to the other books, this one carries a much more serious and sophisticated style.

Lastly, we discuss grilling and meat books and how interesting it is that these books are so clearly marketed towards men. While the other cookbooks are intended for a 1960s housewife. Some of the recipes in these books make me realize how much food has changed over the years, because some of these meals don't look as appetizing.