Cooking Up Some Inspiration

Posted by Lena

I collect a lot of vintage books that I leaf through for inspiration. I find them at flea markets, antique stores, used bookstores, etc. One of my favorite genres of books to collect is little cooking booklets. Mostly from the 1950s and '60s, they were put out by food and beverage companies as promotions for their products.
The illustrations in these little books are usually fantastic, and they've been a great source of inspiration for my illustration work.

Here are some images from my favorites:

Over the years, I've absorbed so much from these books that you can really see the influence in my drawing style. Here are some examples of my own illustration work:

Illustrations I created for Kids Crochet by Kelli Ronci

A travel map I did for Elle Decor magazine

One of my melamine plates

 

Comments

[Jeff]

I wish there was a compendium of all hotel and motel signs and marquees from the 40's-60's, specifically coastal routes...

[lena]

shannon--
yes! i have "i can fly", and love mary blair.

jess gonacha--
a friend who used to work at elle decor suggested me for the job. i've been doing their illustrations for 3+ years now. it's a fun gig!

[shannon]

I love these vintage food books- Have you seen the Little Golden Book classic "I Can Fly"Illustrated by Mary Blair?

[miho sakato]

i like these books very much too!

thank you lena!

[jess gonacha]

wow, i'm totally in love with these. i want to go to a flea market straightaway to see what i can find!

how did you start illustrating for elle decor? i'm just curious. that's so awesome!! :)

[lena]

tulipgirl--

lucky you! i just keep them on my bookshelf, but you could put them in glassine sleeves if you wanted to protect them more. i think they make cute wedding shower gifts, if you don't mind parting with a few of them.

[tulipgirl]

My mom collected these too and I have now inherited her collection. Any thoughts on how to store or organize these wonderful pieces of pop culture?

[lena]

emily--
thank you! i adore sasek too, so that's a huge compliment. i've thought about selling my maps (i've done over 40 city maps), so it's nice to hear that there's interest in buying them! if i do decide to sell them i will post about it on my blog. so you could check in there.

ines--
thank you so much... i do the maps for elle decor all on the computer. i use a wacom tablet, which helps for doing drawing on the computer. the illustrations for the children's books were all by hand.

[Inês Maldonado]

Oh, the books are wonderful, but so are your illustrations! They are just perfect! Do you draw by hand or do you use a computer? I am always curious of techniques

[emily]

Your work also reminds me of Miroslav Sasek's - which I adore.

Are your maps available for sale anywhere? They are truly spectacular.

[melanie]

wonderful!!!

[lena]

ha! yes, the illustrations are great, but the recipes... not so great! jellied shrimp and cream cheese salad?

[Annie]

Vintage cookbooks have such fun, cool illustrations- but the recipes can be super weird. I inherited some from my grandma and the preponderance of recipes containing both jello and some kind of meat- very, very disturbing...

[Patia]

What an interesting post, thank you. I also have a small collection of funky old cookbooks -- mostly ones that make me laugh. There are some real gems out there.

[lena]

hi m. heart

sadly, the illustrator was not credited. as is the case with most of these cooking booklets. isn't that terrible?

[m. heart]

These are fantastic. Who illustrated the "salad and dressings" page? Thanks for sharing.

[Nidhi]

oh my! I have always wondered about those wonderful city maps in Elle Decor. It's so great that you illustrated those!

[Chelsea]

Thank you for sharing these, Lena. What a fun thing to collect.

[miss chris]

Wow. You can totally see the influence.

And my word... what an awesome collection. I'm a little jealous right now. ;)