SRI BODANAPU

Founder // Heirloom Project

Sri Bodanapu’s earliest food memories are of her grandmother’s Hyderabad home, watching family and friends come together over a full, fragrant dinner table. There began her formative relationship with food, and her belief in its power to foster connection and community.

Years later, living in diverse San Francisco, she noticed Indian food was still often reduced to stereotypes. The conversation about regional Indian food was one she was passionate about having. Her first book, A Heritage Of Food, collated intergenerational recipes into a book about her family’s food heritage. With Heirloom Cities, the culinary journey of each city is distilled into a design-led coffee table book. Bodanapu hopes to explore the cyclopean spectrum of Asian food, and to inspire readers to experience it for themselves. But first, through the pages of an Heirloom Cities book…

A NOTE FROM

THE DESIGN TEAM

Each element on a given page of an Heirloom Cities book is there by design. Every poster-ready photograph, detailed illustration, and tiny typographical choice is part of something bigger than simply creating an aesthetic; it is about telling a story. The editions of Heirloom Cities pay homage to the city, to the visuals that evoke the feeling of being in it. The colours drawn from its vibrant markets, the fonts reminiscent of signages from old cafes and street vendors, the bright vectors that punctuate a thoughtfully crafted narrative. Illustrations are their own artworks, a mix of digital sketches with watercolours, gouache and lino painting, while the photographs experiment with perspectives to capture the chromatic charisma of the city. Flip to any page, and a galvanic visual narrative awaits…