1. Overview & Disciplines Kitchen Adventures is a 12-month subscription line for ages 7+ that features culinary adventures from different cultures and countries around the world by Little Passports in collaboration with America’s Test Kitchen Kids. I was partially responsible for the creative direction, conceptualization,  and fully responsible for the illustrations on all printed materials with the exception of the activities and activity instructions, graphic design, and management of the freelance illustrators for the activity art and activity instructions.
2. Art Direction & ConceptThis subscription line is the first to feature a brand collaboration in the Little Passports product offerings. Because of this, there was no pre-existing structure or guideline on how to handle anything from logo treatments to the general graphic design language and illustration styles. I began the process of exploring the creative direction of this product line with a number of mood boards to present to the stakeholders from both Little Passports and America’s Test Kitchen Kids. 

Each mood board featured varying degrees of different color palettes, graphic design, typography, and illustration styles, all while keeping in mind both companies’ individual brand voices and possible co-branding moments.
3. Design & ExecutionFor each country I did extensive research and worked with cultural researchers on the history, art, and design for all of the country-specific design elements like patterns, color palettes, typography, and container shapes, and illustrated assets of all 12 cultures featured.

The design elements that I changed out for every kit include the country-specific typeface, pattern, color palette, and container shapes, all inspired by each culture’s history of art and design for a total of 12 countries.

The design process was fairly straightforward, requiring extensive cross-communication between a number of teams. I worked directly with the content team from America’s Test Kitchen Kids to make sure everything not only looked and felt faithful to the respective cultures, but also so that ATK Kid’s brand voice came through as well.
4. Final ComponentsEach kit includes unique packaging, one flavor journal, 3-6 recipes, a hands-on activity and instructions, a shopping list, and one cooking tool that is required for one of the recipes.
5. Challenges and Takeaways There were many challenges with this project, but the most difficult aspect of the project was balancing all of the kits I was working on at once. As the sole graphic designer working on this entire subscription line, I was juggling anywhere from 3-6 kits all at different stages of development, design, proofing, and sampling under extremely packed timelines.

This project was also challenging due to each month’s kit requiring every visual aspect to emulate the featured country/culture, while considering cultural sensitivities and child-appropriate topics, also keeping in mind the culinary experience of each box as a whole. I prioritized determining how to templatize each component and what elements I could easily modify in each box to maximize efficiency in order to make it possible to meet the tightly packed schedules.

I loved the exploration and development process, including the challenges that came with it: the deep-dive research required to create respectful and meaningful layouts; designing unique container shapes, patterns, and illustrations for each culture; and considering the targeted age group framed in a kitchen and food-centric context.
Credits Graphic Design: Eura Bang
Creative Direction: Jacque Lamkin, Eura Bang
Product Design: Ingrid Dragotta, Lieyah Dagan, Prapti Varma
Illustration: Eura Bang, Boya Sun, Rafa Ribs, William Smith IV, Erikas Chesonis
Content: Lisa Marsoli, Kristin Sargianis
Sourcing: Jen Chang, Roxanne Leung, Shawna Sasaki
Safety and Testing: Rosie Alonso
Product Photography: Joy Coakley
. . . and many others!