Here Design’s delicious fusion of font and form is the perfect promo for Boxtree/Pan Macmillan’s high-concept cookbook, The Geometry of Pasta, released last year.
London-based Here Design created this deceptively simple black-and-white animation to both illustrate a recipe from the book, designed by Here Design partner Caz Hildebrand and written and tested by rising chef Jacob Kenedy, and preview its high-concept contents. The Geometry of Pasta boils down the science, history and philosophy behind some 100 pasta and sauce pairings from all over Italy and delivers it with Hildebrand’s perfectly shaped and stylized illustrations and layout.

Hildebrand is already well-known for her cookbook designs for TV chefs like Nigella Lawson and the Hairy Bikers (equal parts Easy Rider and a male version of the Two Fat Ladies). But her idea for this seemingly modern departure came from a very old source. According to an interview in the design magazine Imprint, Hildebrand says she was originally inspired by the book Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well by Pellegrino Artusi, first published in 1891.

For the animation, Hildebrand and her team paired her illustrations with dynamic text in a serif font, a departure from the book’s Neutraface headline typography but a perfect counterpoint to the weightier graphic elements zipping through the frame.