Comemos

CLIENT TYPE: CONCEPT PROJECT

INDUSTRY: FOOD + GASTRONOMY

DELIVERABLES: BOOK DESIGN, PRINT PRODUCTION

YEAR: 2022

Comemos — Una breve historia de México a través de su comida — was the capstone project for my master's degree in editorial design: a 332-page book tracing the history of Mexico through its regional gastronomy. Six regions, every state, with iconography, hand-drawn illustrations, and original recipes woven into a text-heavy format designed to never feel like one.

The project placed as a semi-finalist in the 7th annual TFM ESDESIGN Awards, a competition recognizing the top graduate design projects from the master's program.

  • Open book spread showing a full-page photograph of a pile of fresh red chili peppers on the left, and the table of contents for Comemos on the right, organized into four chapters: Las Regiones, Los Ingredientes, Las Bebidas, and Las Especialidades.
  • Open book spread with a styled photograph of coyotas on the upper left, editorial text covering Sonoran dishes and drinks including coyotas, tepache, and tejuino on the left page, and the opening spread of the Chihuahua chapter on the right featuring
  • Open book spread from the Tlaxcala chapter with two columns of editorial text on the left covering mixiotes, tlaxcales, mole negro de huitlacoche, and pulque, a four-image photo grid in the center-right showing regional ingredients and dishes, and a
  • Open book spread featuring editorial text on the left covering Mexican breakfast dishes including huevos rancheros, huevos a la mexicana, huevos divorciados, and guajolotas, with two food photographs of chilaquiles rojos and huevos divorciados in the
  • Open book spread from the Las Bebidas chapter featuring a styled photograph of a bottle of Una Vida Tequila Reposado with limes on a blue tile surface on the left, and editorial text on the right under the heading "Para Pasártela Bien" covering the h
  • Open book spread from the Quintana Roo chapter with editorial text on the left continuing coverage of the region's cuisine, a full-page photograph of pescado a la tikin-xic on the lower left, and a three-image photo grid on the right featuring makum
  • Full sheet of terracotta-colored food and ingredient icons used throughout Comemos, arranged in six rows. Icons represent animals (goat, cow, duck, rabbit, iguana, sheep, pig), seafood (crab, lobster, shrimp, octopus, fish, mussel, clam), culinary ob
  • Editorial illustration spread titled "Los Chiles de México" on a white background, featuring six detailed botanical-style illustrations of Mexican chiles arranged in two rows: chile ancho, chile de árbol, and chile guajillo in the top row; chile haba
  • Editorial illustration spread titled "El Maíz de México" on a white background, featuring four detailed illustrations of indigenous Mexican corn varieties: ocho hileras (deep red), chapalote (reddish-brown), dentado (gray-white), and chihuahua (golde

Grid system — A text-heavy book across 332 pages lives or dies by its grid. The structure was built to accommodate running prose, image interruptions, recipe layouts, and regional illustrations without the reader ever feeling the scaffolding underneath.

Type hierarchy — Chapter titles, section headers, body copy, captions, and recipe text each occupy a distinct typographic register — enough differentiation to guide the eye, restrained enough to maintain editorial coherence across six chapters.

Illustration integration — Hand-drawn regional maps and iconography were designed to break the density of long-form text without disrupting the reading rhythm — visual breathing room that earns its place rather than decorating the page.

Print production — The book was prepared and sent to print with full production specifications: registration marks, trim lines, and a high-resolution PDF delivered as pages, not spreads. The printed object was the deliverable, not the file.

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