Taste of Home
Intro
'Taste of Home' is a publication that explores and documents my parents’ untold story of migration to New Zealand in 1988. This collection of books investigates how they deal with the plurality of cultures coming together and how it influences their taste of home. These stories contain hardships and experiences that other migrants and children of migrants can relate to too. This is their story.
Year
/
2020
Agency
/
4th Year Project
Industry
/
University Project
The Challenge:
Migration stories are often underrepresented, despite playing an important role in shaping identity and belonging for migrants and their families. The challenge was to transform deeply personal oral histories into a cohesive publication while preserving the authenticity of my parents' voices and experiences. The project also explored how communication design could help migrants and children of migrants connect with their cultural identity through storytelling.
The Idea:
The publication was developed around two themes: the power of storytelling and the role of food as a carrier of culture and memory. Through interviews with my parents, I documented their individual migration journeys and translated them into a collection of books, each using a different visual and narrative approach. Archival photographs, family recipes, official documents and personal memories were brought together to create a tangible archive that could be shared and passed down through future generations. The physical format, materials and binding methods were intentionally chosen to reflect the personal and archival nature of the stories.
The Outcome:
Created a multi-book publication documenting two migration journeys
Preserved family stories through interviews, archival material and design
Explored how communication design can support cultural identity and representation
Developed a tactile archive intended to be shared across generations
Combined editorial design, storytelling and material experimentation into a cohesive publication system
Deliverables:
