For a family united by a love of food, this custom-designed coffee table book weaves together their rich history and cherished recipes. Equal parts cookbook and historical archive, this book celebrates the family’s legacy in a format that is both elegant and deeply personal.
Client
Timeline
2-3 months
Services
Illustration
Website
Challenge
For a major family reunion, the Swani family sought a meaningful keepsake to celebrate their shared legacy. Knowing their passion for food, I proposed creating a recipe book enriched with personal anecdotes and the stories behind each dish. To make it a timeless treasure for future generations, I incorporated the family’s history through captivating narratives and detailed genealogical records.
Solution
The result was a hardcover coffee table book showcasing 9 generations of the Swani family heritage. It featured over 50 treasured recipes—some passed down through centuries—spanning regional Indian cuisines such as Punjabi, Kashmiri, Bihari, South Indian, and Maharashtrian, as well as international favorites from Greek and Canadian traditions. The book also included detailed family trees for each branch, culminating in an impressive fold-out family tree tracing an impressive 9 generations of the Swani lineage across the globe. For this project, I managed the visual design and execution end-to-end, from concept & design to publishing & distribution. The support I received was editorial, where the text content was crowdsourced and edited by others in the team. The project was successfully funded, with 40 copies purchased by Swani family members worldwide, ensuring their rich history and culinary traditions were preserved for generations to come. Coffee Table Book size: 12" x 17" Pages: 116 + Family Tree pull-out spread
