Introduction
The Zenith project is the last project for students in their Senior year at Freestyle. We get to pick any project as long as it relates to our elective class. It is a big project spanning more than a month and requires passion, time management, and hard work.
For my Zenith project, I decided to make a cookbook because I wanted to combine my hobbies of photography and cooking into my project. Originally, I wanted to make a printed cookbook to give to my family, but I ran out of time so the final product is an ebook.
I incorporated my Design skills into this project by using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Indesign to assemble the book.
Process
Completed Project
Zenith reflection
I chose to make a cookbook for my Zenith project because I thought it would be a fun way to combine my hobbies of cooking and photography into my design project. To prepare for this project, I researched inspiration for ways to present recipes. My initial idea was to have illustrations as the visuals for the dishes because I liked the way they looked, but I didn’t have enough time to make drawings that looked appropriate for a cookbook. I didn’t really collaborate with anyone other than getting feedback from Ms. P on my progress checks. Her feedback was helpful and she gave suggestions about what recipes to include and how to incorporate photos and graphic design elements.
I improved the most in self-direction because we made calendars with deadlines and frequent checkpoints to keep ourselves on track. However, I was quite busy during the project and fell behind. I had to make adjustments to catch up and turn in my project on time. I would say I improved the least in risk taking since this project was quite similar to the junior documentary book project from last year. The only new aspect was food photography. If I were to do the zenith project again, I would choose a project that was more different from what I have done previously.
I think I will use what I learned about time management from this project in the future. Because I had poor time management near the middle of the project, I was stressed and under a lot of pressure towards the end when we were nearing the deadline. Next time, I will plan more time for myself to work on my project.
Although I don’t think this is my most successful Freestyle project, I enjoyed this project because I got to write a book about food. This ignited my passion for cooking and baking and sharing my love for food with others. If I could do this project over, I would perhaps not make a book and try a project like a more physical art instead of digital art to push myself out of my comfort zone a bit more.
All in all, this project taught me lessons about time management and perseverance and was a valuable experience, fitting for my last project at Freestyle.