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Food has
become a socially relevant subject in a short space of time. This is
understandable because the theme has a direct connection with major health
issues, such as obesity, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, food
has a direct relationship to even much larger themes such as global warming,
plastic soup, over-consumption, biodiversity and water consumption.
Food also
has a moral side. Should you cut a pregnant sturgeon because her eggs are so
delicious: caviar? And is it okay for 15 chickens to spend their lives on 1
square meter? At this moment, everything on our planet that is keeping us busy,
can be related to food.
Growth
because of relevance
When a
subject has that degree of relevance, designers will poke their noses into it. It
understandable from an economic perspective: where something changes, there is
something to earn from it. Apart from that: most designers like to engage with
issues that are significant to us.
As a
result, a whole army of food designers have started to emerge. This platoon is
developing rapidly, because there already is a bachelor department at the Design
Academy Eindhoven, headed by the uncrowned queen of food design, Marije
Vogelzang. Furthermore, food designers have graduated from different universities
as well, so this growth is unstoppable.
Yet I
wonder what designers are actually doing in this sector. Not a whole lot I
believe. It can’t be the design of food, since there is already a profession
for that. Someone who determines which ingredients are used, how the food is
prepared and how it is served we call cooks
or chefs. Whether it is a star
chef or it is Unilever who recently made the Unox pea soup with less salt.
Cooks and chefs discuss this, in consultation with their managers. No designers involved. If a
designer really wants to design food, I suggest that he or she takes a cookery
course. It is the shortest route and it is a guarantee for the best training in
food design. And be aware: the design process of a meal resembles the design
process of a designer. Good chefs are already good designers.
They are
creative, they have a plan, they listen to the customer and to themselves. They
can handle assignments, they can make budgets and send an invoice. They often
make prototypes and usually tweak the prototype again, based on the feedback
they are getting. In short: chef = designer. Let's not pretend that designers know
better, because we don’t.
Branding
and advertising
I fear that
designers play a big role in the branding of food - to give people the feeling
that food can be authentic, that love and care has been put into it. Designers
therefore make a lot of chalkboards to write the menus on, because then the
food seems fresher. They serve on plates with surprising, uneven shapes or even
on pieces of stone. They design different uniforms for the waitresses, they
design different menus and invent cheerful, creative names for the dishes.
Can we call
this food design? No, this is food branding or simply advertising. 90 percent
of all those food designers are part of the advertising industry without
knowing it. They invent new ways of selling food. Name a chicken leg: 'primeval
poultry roasted in sesame oil' or call sauerkraut 'Choucroute'. Or add a story
about the origin of the salt that is used in the butter.
These
examples were real and there a numerous other: everybody can tell a few. Designers
are popular in the food industry because they can create the illusion of small
scale, authenticity and creativity. Values that we like to connect with food.
Food designers dress up, pack, articulate, drape, envelop, embellish and
stylize. Practically all used to be the competences of the advertising craftsman.
Designers
are often praised for the 'awareness' they can create, and also around this
theme. We no longer expect solutions from designers but take pleasure in
'generating awareness'. It is true that awareness is the first step towards
change in complex systems like the food industry is. And it is valuable that
someone is doing so.
Can I point
out that generating awareness used to be a typical advertising task as well? Do
you remember the hundreds of commercials for non-drunk driving. Or for safe
sex, careful with fireworks, careful with drugs and social workers? They were all
products from larger advertising agencies. All to create 'awareness'. I'll just
say it once more: designers in food are primarily concerned with advertising.