Ten

Article by Domenic Lippa

I love to cook. My kids would probably say I love to eat too going by the comments they make about me! But I love the idea of either following a recipe or just experimenting by bringing things that are sitting in the fridge together. I don’t care whether it’s an elaborate meal or a simple salad of fresh ingredients. It de-stresses me and weirdly I love the unpredictability of it. You can repeat a recipe and each time it might come out slightly differently. I always cook to taste rather than follow dogmatically the words from a cook book. This is something I learnt from my mother. Cooking is a communal activity to be shared with family and friends. I grew up in a family where the kitchen and meal was central to our lives. It didn’t matter what we were doing we would always eat together. My father was an Italian American (who ironically couldn’t cook) and my mother was from Grimsby (she did all the cooking). But it was my mother’s patience and enjoyment of cooking that inspired me. I remember on Sunday mornings she would be up preparing the pasta for later in the day. The sauce would cook for hours, slowly building in taste as she kept going back to it, tasting and adding flavours. We would eat a variety of foods and were also taken out to restaurants to try new tastes. The meal, whether a lunch or a dinner was a time when we would all help, sit down and argue, discuss, laugh and shout. Our meals were never conducted in silence. They were all about expression. We would then all help clear up and the routine would start again the next day.

For me cooking is all about how different ingredients can come together, to not only give sustenance but also pleasure. I love the fact that people around the world can have the same basic ingredients but yet still produce endless interpretations.

I find it interesting that although the obvious parallels between cooking and printing are there, printing is often seen as a process rather then a creative exercise. For me a process can be soulless and clinical. Print should not be about this. Print should be interpretive and expressive. As with cooking I love the apparent restrictiveness of print – a certain number of colours and materials coming together to produce something that will be interpreted by someone else. But print has the same limitless possibilities as cooking. How many colours are you using, specials, 4 colour process? Is it litho, silkscreen, gravure, etched or digital? How are the inks to be laid down, what materials and paper stocks are you using? How is the piece being bound or structured? What other materials are you using? For me some of my most successful projects have been using just one or two colours. Nothing more. Simple. Others have complex solutions that use a variety of techniques and they work too. But in the end the difference that makes a project work or fail is the attention to detail and an understanding of what you’re working with.

Every time I start a project I’m already thinking about the end result. How can I make something a little bit special? Print is central to this. It’s the same with cooking. Will it work or will I screw up! And I love that.

Domenic Lippa biography

Pentagram partner Domenic Lippa studied at the London College of Printing and has gained a worldwide, award-winning reputation for work in packaging, print, identity design and retail graphics. A renowned authority on typography, he has co-edited and designed the international magazine Baseline and currently co-edits and designs Circular, the magazine of the Typographic Circle. Domenic has also lectured extensively on design related subjects throughout Europe and the USA.

Paula Scher biography

Paula Scher is a Partner at Pentagram. Since beginning her career as a record cover art director at Atlantic and CBS Records in the 1970s, Paula Scher has been at the forefront of contemporary graphic design as an iconic image-maker, an award winning corporate strategist, a highly regarded lecturer and a respected author. Amongst her many awards, she received the profession’s highest honour, the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) medal in 2001. 

How to purchase a poster

A strictly limited edition of 100 A2 posters of Paula Scher’s artwork, beautifully printed by Team and individually numbered can be purchased, priced £25.00 plus P&P. All proceeds will go to The Prince’s Trust ‘Team Programme’.

Buy now (UK)

Buy now (Europe)

Buy now (Rest of the World)