Gathered
Sophie Shron
In recent years of COVID, gathering with those we love has proven difficult, but along with the return of such gatherings came a deeper appreciation for coming together. The dining table is a host to some of life’s most intimate moments: it is a place for celebrating, for romance, for arguments, or for catching up.
Food is one of the many ways we show love, and family recipes tell stories about the people, places, and foods that are associated with them. When we cook these recipes, we are transported back to those places in an instant, and when we share these recipes, it allows others to understand our experiences.
Families often create self-archives of their lives through scrapbooking, or creating photo albums. These objects are treated as artifacts of our lives and are cherished, shared, and protected.
Gathered is a collection of nostalgic objects that reference the methods of family archiving: a scrapbook, a photo album, a recipe box, and a website where readers can access printable recipe cards. These objects showcase different family’s experiences through images of gathering and family recipes.
Gathered expresses the love that is shown through food and gathering by archiving the common artifacts that most families take pride in: family recipes. The design speaks to the handcrafted nature of traditional scrapbooks and the ornamentation of vintage recipe cards, while also referencing digital forms through text symbols and asterisk’s as decorative elements, creating a bridge from nostalgic family memorabilia to modern forms of archiving.