The Unofficial Lizzo Cookbook is a project I worked on during my internship at the Quarto Group.
For this project I was partnered with the editorial intern, and together we were tasked with coming up with a concept for some sort of lifestyle book that we thought would be trendy and popular, and a good addition to one of Quarto's imprints. We were given this project so that we could learn how an editor and art director work together to bring a book idea to life. Our book would not be real, as this was just an internal project, but it was still a lot of fun to work on, and allowed me to challenge myself in ways I hadn't before.
For the project, we came up with a few different ideas, but settled on a vegan cookbook based on the popstar Lizzo's vegan recipes that have been very popular on TikTok. The editorial intern put together a book idea and art concept for our book, and presented it to me, as I would be the art director for this book. Once I had the art concept, I began to work on the cover, as the style of the cover would set the mood for the design style for the rest of the book.
I wanted to stay true to Lizzo's personal style and her attitude, and I really wanted to make it look genuine, like something Lizzo would actually create. I came up with several cover designs, and presented them to a small group of supervisors and editors, who helped me refine my work.
I made all of the illustrations and patterns used in all the covers and throughout the book spreads, but none of the images are mine, and the name and identity of Lizzo do not belong to me.
I presented my covers to a group of people familiar with the project, including my supervisors and my partner on the project. They gave me feedback on my designs, and together we talked through how to perfect the cover.
Once I had that feedback, I began working on the spreads and the back cover. The editorial intern had written a few pages of the book, including a table of contents, an introduction, and a few recipe pages, and she sent it all over to me to design. I tried to stay true to the style that I created in the cover, and make the pages bright and fun.
I sent my designs on to be revised, and after a few changes, the spreads and covers were complete.
Disclaimer:
The images used in this project DO NOT belong to me.
The name and identity of Lizzo DO NOT belong to me.
