cutlery double-page crit

Today's crit has been really useful, we laid out our work and asked three questions we felt were relevant to get informed feedback. 

Q1. Do you think my initial designs are suitable to the theme? 

Q2. How would you make cutlery interesting? 

Q3. Finally, any suggestions? 

1. Your drawn layout looks good so far but will look very different when created. 
2. Possibly close up photography used as full page images 
3. Are you left aligning, centering your header? 

1. It's quite hard to understand what they would look like, I'd have to see colours, fonts, etc. 
2. Maybe with interesting angles in pictures or laying out test in the shape of cutlery etc.
3. When I think of cutlery I think of shiny and silver: try to use that colour palette and the ormament you find them in the layouts 

1. Yes really like the first page and the ven-diagram 
2. Talk about that bloke that bends spoons or that kid in Russia who can stick cutlery to him
3. Just make it fun 

1. I guess... I really like the venn diagram...
2. I'd like to see beautiful collections of old cool cutlery 
3. Again yeah I think weird and wonderful collections are the way to go. 

1. Yes very well laid out. I like how its not too cluttered
2. As someone said in the comments its about layout not content
3. Try place text in the shape of cutlery, maybe an interesting effect

1. Yes, I think you should keep it minimal.
2. Facts, old photos, use your photo's!
3. Love the illustrations. Go with them 

1. Yes but one that you have not pursued is the arrangement around the plate. This seems like it could be simplified down to a dental image or theme and applied effectively.
2. Look at the function of each piece and translate into layout in some way? 
3. Look at place settings and how they might translate into layout

I could look at table etiquette which could be really interesting.

1. Yeah I like them, the first page is well organised like a dinner table would be 
2. Look at the funny ones splayd. etc- but I think you don't need to worry that cutlery isn't interesting. It's about layout more than context.
3. Put in some text and see if it works on the page. 

Something I was worried about, making cutlery interesting to look at and read! but yeah it is more about layout than the context. 

1. I think it's difficult to tell without images or type to work from.
2. I'd make cutlery interesting by mixing up their uses. Eg: using a fork for soup. 
3. Perhaps consider colour? 

1. Your layouts are great simple straight to the point.
2. I would look into the different type of colours used in cutlery. Are colours important do they link with the idea
3. I like the simplicity, look into books about cutlery and link them with your work. 

Probably the easiest place to start by looking into existing cutlery books and how I would improve them to inform my designs, yet I hadn't even thought about doing that! 

From the crit I got some really useful feedback, people especially liked the venn-diagram and the idea of keeping the layout minimal and not cutlery. I think I need to re-evaluate my initial designs and looking into colour.