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Recipe Cards Task 3 (Critical analysis of existing vegetarian recipes) Patrick Gouldsbrough

Recipe cards task 3 (analysing existing products)

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Page 1: Recipe cards task 3 (analysing existing products)

Recipe Cards Task 3

(Critical analysis of existing vegetarian recipes)

Patrick Gouldsbrough

Page 2: Recipe cards task 3 (analysing existing products)

The photography on this recipe is not cut out properly, instead, it’s been cropped, which is why you can see the cakes around the central focus cake.

From a distance, this word is not readable, due to the font. However, you can probably guess what is says, while the other text in this font is visible.

The font is dull and the colour is boring, it wouldn’t stand out if a lot of recipes were compiled in a book. However, the recipe does look professional, which is partly down to this restrained font. A Red or a Blue colouring would have fitted nicely to this recipe, but, as mentioned previously, the black text looks professional and readable.

Due to the background been dull, another technique from the recipe must be used to make it stand out to the reader. The border is an effective feature of making something (an image, a it of text or an article) stand out. I like this feature, however, I think I will use bright colours to entice the audience, so a younger demographic will be appealed to also.

The dull and restrained colours of the background is one thing on the recipe that I dislike. This is because it, along with the font colour, is dull, so I believe one of these should be right and striking, instead of restrained.

The content within the recipe is clear, while it's very simple to follow.

The writing style is formal language, but at the same time, has elements of informal language, this could be to entice a younger audience, but could also be just for the ease to read the recipe.

Page 3: Recipe cards task 3 (analysing existing products)

Like the previous example, a border is used to make this recipe striking and enticing to the consumer of the recipe card. However, the bright background colours aren’t as restrained as the previous example, so the border isn’t a key feature.

I like the bold font for the specific ingredients. This could be a potential feature to emulate in the production of my recipe cards.

The lack of an image of the finished recipe makes this recipe card less effective, compared to what it could have been. A photograph helps to communicate to an audience, what it looks like when you’ve made it. These logos that they’ve replaced images with don’t have the same effect. For this reason, a viewer of the recipe may not pick it, due to not knowing what it looks like when it’s made.

The font is clear, concise and is easy to read. Fancy fonts haven’t been added, due to this recipe been aimed at a working class audience, while the simplicity of the steps and font, suggests it could be aimed at a younger audience than first thought.

Like the other example, the font is restrained in terms of colour. However, compared to the vegan fudge cake, the background is colourful, therefore, it doesn’t need additional colour on the font or other features.

While the language doesn’t feature any colloquialisms, it’s a very informally worded recipe card. However, as stated earlier, it’s aimed at a young, working class demographic.

The only thing that seems to appeal about this recipe is the colouring. The blue and yellow are striking, but I feel a photograph would have made the recipe card very effective and would have been a popular recipe card.

Page 4: Recipe cards task 3 (analysing existing products)

The green logo on this recipe card connotes the vegetarian colour, due to the grass and vegetables you associate with vegetarianism. This feature isn’t used as much as you would think, but, on the other hand, a recipe card doesn’t have to connote anything, just allow you to read and follow it.

The border of this recipe card may not be as visually striking as the previous two, but it has a different purpose than the others. While the other two examples border’s aim to entice the consumer, this one aims to contrast the white, while framing the image in the centre.

The photograph on this recipe card is presented differently, compared to the others. This photograph is the main focus of the recipe card, instead of accompanying the text, like the others. The borders further the photographs status as the main focus, due to the dark borders contrasting with the light photograph.

Like the other two, the language of the recipe card is informal and is easy to follow. However, the addition of certain formal lexis and the wine pairing at the end, suggests an older, higher class demographic is been targeted with this recipe cards.

The font used is clear, concise and isn’t difficult to read. However, as explained earlier, the purpose of a recipe card is to tell someone how to do it, so doesn’t have to look as aesthetically pleasing as a magazine or newspaper layout.

Unlike example two, this recipe card and example one are restrained colour wise and won’t entice the audience by colour. However, one thing these recipe cards have, which the second one doesn’t, is an accompanying image of the recipe.

Page 5: Recipe cards task 3 (analysing existing products)

Font – The font is simple, nothing too fancy, which is sometimes difficult to read. This may suggest a younger, working class audience is been targeted. This is due to middle class consumers wanting fancy fonts, however, this should not be used as an example, not all the middle and working class people are the same, so assumption should not be made.

Headings – Again, like the font, this feature is easily readable and clear. However, unlike the normal font, the headings are the only thing on the recipe card, text wise, that has any variation of colour to it. They help split up the text on the recipe card, as well as highlighting the key parts of the recipe, such as the name of the dish. Even though it might not have the appeal colour wise, it is still an easy recipe to follow, with few steps.

Photograph – Due to this recipe card been found on an official association website, it may suggest the picture was taken at a professional level, instead of a stock image been used, or an amateur photograph been used. The photographs quality is good, with the image been most likely post-produced, to make it look more enticing than the initial image, like a lot of food photography does.

Language – Out of all the recipe cards so far, this recipe is the easiest to follow. This is mainly due to the informal and simple lexis scattered throughout the method and ingredient sections. Again, a demographic could be applied to this recipe, without making assumption about a certain group. In my opinion, the simple language indicates a younger audience would be the target of the recipe. As for class demographic, too many assumptions could be made from this and someone's class doesn’t reflect their educational ability.

Colours – The colours are restrained and only features two colours on the whole recipe cards. The lack of bold, bright colours suggests a different audience are targeted recipe, not the young audience that I first though. Bold bright colours on a product usually appeals more to younger people, therefore, the lack of colours would mean an older demographic is targeted. Again, assumptions about all young people been appealed to by bright colours and older people been enticed by restrained colours should not be made.

Page 6: Recipe cards task 3 (analysing existing products)

Photograph – Taken from example 4 of the recipe cards, I believe this was the best way of communicating images to the consumer. Example ones image was too small, example twos photography was non-existent, while example threes was not as visible as first thought, therefore the effectiveness was reduced. Where as example fours image wasn’t too overbearing on the main body of text, but was a main focus of the recipe card, a feature I want to emulate.

Ingredient list – The font and formality of the ingredient list would have been appropriate from all 4 of my examples, but the second example had something the other 3 didn’t. This extra something was the highlighted words of the specific ingredients needed. As stated on the initial analysis, this is a feature I would like to emulate on my recipe cards. However, the yellow backing on the list would not be emulated, a more restrained colouring, like the one on example one may be the best colouring to emulate. As for the language, all the examples had the correct level of formality, so could have been used. I want to try and appeal to a wide spread audience, which includes children, so simple lexis is paramount for my recipe cards.

Heading – Like the text on my recipe card, I wanted the heading to be easy to read, clear and simple. This heading from example four is just what I required for my own recipe card. The bold and brightly coloured title allows the title to stand out, but not take an attention away from the image or main body of text on the recipe card, a feature, not just one that I want , but what every producer of recipe card wants.

Method steps – Similar to my heading and ingredient lists, I wanted the consistency of clear and easy to read text to continue. Every method list on my examples were clear, apart from example one. The fancy font that was used to write ‘method’ was not easy to read, and I felt the consumer may be put off by a recipe they couldn’t follow easily. The restrained colour of the backing also appealed, due to the main feature of my recipe cards been easy to follow.

Border – I wanted a border on the recipe card, so it would make it stand out from other recipe cards. A striking colour could be an option, but a restrained coloured border would fit in more with the other features I have selected to emulate. A black border, like the one from example 1 would also contrast well with the potentially white background of my recipe card.

Page 7: Recipe cards task 3 (analysing existing products)

Modern vs old Old Modern

*Two recipes from the same site, but 10 years apart

Page 8: Recipe cards task 3 (analysing existing products)

Old Modern

• The recipe has a lot of steps, the ingredients are hard to follow and the language used is formal lexis.

• The recipe is clear, it is easy to follow and the steps are simply worded in informal lexis. One observation is that cooking is viewed as a more age and gender equal task to do than it was in the past. Technology also has a part to play in the shortness of the steps, blenders and processors eliminate steps that would have been chopped and diced in the past recipes. Another factor is the time that people have to cook these days. Work and other tasks fill up mostly of peoples lives, short recipes are key for the modern family.

• The font is restrained in colour and layout. This makes it easy to read, despite the long steps that the old recipe has.

• The font colours are still restrained, due to the ease of reading it not been able to be improved much in the 10 years between these recipes. Discovery of new fonts have made it easier, if anything, but the old fonts were still easy to read and clear.

• The photography is well taken and captured in a professional manner. Post-production techniques are used on the particular image in the example.

• Again, the photography on the modern one is well taken and it’s definitely professionally captured. Post-productions have been used, but only to sharpen the image up colour wise. An evolution in technology has enabled cropping, colour alteration and framing in recent times, features which weren’t evident in the old photograph.

• Colouring on the recipe card is very restrained in colour. A white colouring of the recipe card features on this particular example.

• Not much changes on the modern recipe card, compared to the old recipe card. The restrained colours are till effective and help contrast the black text, especially if a white background is used.

Modern vs old

Page 9: Recipe cards task 3 (analysing existing products)

Vegetarian recipe Vs Meat recipeVegetarian

Meat recipe

Page 10: Recipe cards task 3 (analysing existing products)

Vegetarian recipe Meat recipe

• The lexis in the vegetarian recipe is formal, but is clear and concise at the same time. The formality suggests it’s aimed at a middle class audience, while the non-mainstream curry furthers that claim.

• Due to there only been one step in the whole recipe, there’s not much text to analyse. However, the text that’s there for analysis shows informal lexis, but clear and consistent text formation still makes it easy to read. Just because the meat recipe is varying in language from the vegetarian one, it doesn’t mean the class of the audience is lower, it just means the volume of text is less, plus, this is just one recipe out of a lot of meat recipes.

• The vegetarian recipe uses colour to connote vegetarianism. The green button on the example (previous slide) suggests it’s identifying this recipe as a vegetarian one and differentiating it from a meat one.

• The purple colours used in the meat recipe also help differentiate between different things. However, it doesn’t connote anything, instead it just differentiates the text from the different and very important nutritional values. These are featured on meat recipes and not on vegetarian ones, due to the large majority of vegetarian dishes been health, compared to the meat recipes, where nutritional information is required.

The photography in both of these pieces are well captured and taken. The sharpness of the images tell us they have been professionally taken, while the vibrancy of the image suggests post-production techniques have

been used on both. Unlike the old and modern ones been completely different, these two photography pieces are similar, due to technological retrains not

been a factor in either of these two images.

<------(Applies to both)

Vegetarian recipe Vs Meat recipe