S is for Strudel is an opulent immersion into the historical nuance of Eastern Europe.
Within these pages, generations of preserved family recipes serve as the vessel for chronicling a history that was not always so decadent, yet always rich in heritage and tradition.
Hand drawn illustrations, archival photography, and time-honored recipes are artfully curated for the cosmopolitan reader, who need not be a member of the Ukrainian diaspora to delight in its resilience.
Role: writer, designer
Watercolor illustrations by Marina Kogan (my mom!)
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Illustration
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I started by interviewing my grandmother, informally. She loves to talk about what she’s cooking while she’s cooking.
I typed away furiously, my fingers whizzing on the keyboard as I translated Russian to English while she dropped cultural insights in-between kneading dough.
Then my mom and I discussed a direction for the visuals over tea and strudel. We immediately gravitated towards watercolour due to the imperfect nature of the medium. It would deliver a one-of-a-kind look that cannot be replicated, justifying a luxury price point for the book and nodding to the intuitive nature of cooking.
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My family took two suitcases when they immigrated to the U.S. from Odessa, Ukraine in 1989. My great-grandmother filled one of those suitcases entirely with her prized porcelain collection.
The set arrived to America in perfect condition; not a single teacup chipped.
The colours of our family tea service have since marked resilience, beauty, and strength.
And so the colour palette was born. Imperial Blue #283b8b: a rich, royal cobalt pigment classically used in European porcelain, and Porcelain White #ffffff: a crisp white, traditional China.