2012
Nickel City Chef 2012,
published by Buffalo Spree Publishing, Inc.
Front Cover:
Starting with the tagline “Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire” and the request for simple, clean imagery to represent it, I began to cull together stock photos of both fire and smoke. Having been supplied early with the four Nickel City Chef portraits (shot by Nancy J. Parisi, I was able to get an idea for the aesthetic’s tone and therefore lean heavily on the stark contrast of yellows and oranges on black. The design went through a couple iterations until the mirroring of fire on top and bottom to engulf the information at middle stood out as the winner.
Inside Layout:
Keeping the previous year’s book in mind as far as left hand page containing competing chefs and right hand holding the three judges, I tried to instill more of a bracket look in order to maintain the feel of a rivalry and high stakes contest. The chefs then get their vitals going head-to-head vertically as fire consumes the page and the judges counter perpendicularly in a horizontal list.
Continuing the background throughout, all other information pages mimic the feel whether text- or image-based. The choice to go white/bright text on black background was a no-brainer as the dark abyss became the perfect vehicle for the glow of everything laid above it.
