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Challenging the Future of Food with Design

by First name Last name on 06/20/2011 | 1 Minute Read

When I speak at The Dieline Conference this week I will be talking about the Future of food and taste and what it means for design. It would be naïve to think that what I talk about will only affect packaging and brands in the food sector - it will affect all. We are what we eat.

If we look at any sector, any market, then the past two years shows a change almost beyond all recognition. And it’s design that has been the prime catalyst as a new breed of brands has bravely changed and challenged existing paradigms to create new thoughts and visual expressions for brands – and redefine categories.

New product/packaging innovations – such as Puma’s ‘Clever Little Bag’, Karim Rashid’s Water Bobble and Help Remedies– have successfully changed both the function and aesthetic of their categories. It’s not just exciting to be part of such a radically creative culture but important to recognize that it is the most disruptive and strongly creative brands that will not just survive but that are now responsible for shaping the personal, social and commercial landscape of the future. It’s great to be a brand designer in these shifting times, and as The Dieline shows there are some brilliant ideas out there which rival the thinking of some of our more snooty design colleagues and their more revered design disciplines.

Food and drink are at the heartland of our business and at the core of daily life for all of us and if we are going to look at the changes – and challenges – in just one sector, and how they define and resonate, then this is surely it. Design is the living embodiment of change this is where the opportunity lies for brands to move away from the norms and conventions that have defined the mood and climate for a long time and match visionary brand propositions with truly creative identities to show that we are living in a new age which truly has a new influence.

Jamie Oliver may have had something of a hard time entering the US market with his healthy eating for kid campaign but no one can deny his commitment, passion and vision manly because he is not afraid to disrupt and challenge the status quo time and time again until he gets what he wants and makes not ‘a’ – but ‘the’ - difference. The stats speak for themselves when you look at the success of his Jme brand which launched in 2009 and which moved good food into the category of a good life.

Jme is one of a new breed of lifestyle brands which – although it has a heartland area – extends its offer to create a broader and more eclectic branded experience by building an image around discovery and individuality and meeting different expressions, and interests, of our characters outside of their expected boundaries. Taking Jamie from the kitchen to the home, Jme provides a constantly evolving and growing collection of useful and lovely things, innovated and designed both by Jamie himself and by different designers all over the world. Rather than imposing an aesthetic, the strong Jme marque is collaborative and adaptable allowing the Jme brand to exist in a fluid and natural way and hold together the eclectic and evolving collection of food products and packaging.

What we need to remember is that most icons were once challengers themselves. They know about change. In our opinion a truly iconic brand never stops challenging because the reason people love it is because of what it stands for. It doesn’t attach itself to fashionable ‘issues’, it doesn’t challenge to look edgy – it challenges because it believes something very strongly and strongly represents this through its brand identity and evolving design. Think Absolut and the continual evolution and expression of its sensational flavours with Absolut Mandrin and the orange in the bottle.

Absolut and Jme are just two of the brands that we have worked with and helped to successfully and dramatically bust-open the road blocks to progress by not slavishly being suckered into trends but by using design and visual expression to remain relevant and focused on the future whilst also creating and tapping into the right part of the visual brand equity that expresses our deepest feelings and inspires the essential love and connection that we need to remain connected to the brand. And we now need to follow the lead of brands such as these. We need to buck the trend by ignoring the trends and, instead, look at the changes in human behavior to really understand not just how the future will taste? But how it will look…

On 8th June this year it saw us launch the results of our next transatlantic future vision and insight program. We were looking at ‘Taste’ - and cultural and category change in the world of food and drink with the help of experts and opinion formers from around the world, to build a rich picture of the future of taste and it’s certainly been food for thought for all of us. Design is as responsible as any part of the food industry and can play a very real part in opening up direct visual dialogues to create new solutions and expressions for the evolution of food. As it was such a mouthwatering event I wanted to share a couple of our key findings and I’ll talk and show more about this at the conference.

Is our health and that of society our most sought after wealth?

Understanding our individual health should be instinctual but the commercialization and changing nature of food available to us has distracted and distanced us from our natural instincts of what to eat. The result has been advice without explanation, promise without solution, and benefit without pleasure. In the future we will look to those who can help simplify and enhance our choices. Creating a new world that makes the best of all the natural goodness available to us. Waitrose, the most forward thinking of British retailers has recognised this and has turned the notion of healthy eating as boring, upside down with a new carefully selected range of foods across 600 skus under the brand name LOVE life.

Working on it was a dream because for once a retailer was taking the right forward thinking attitude with great product and using design to reframe the whole idea that a enjoyment of life can be enhanced by bright vibrant eating, full of unexpected flavour, rich taste and pleasure. Surely the stuff of life.

Have we turned our back on the perfection offered by industrialization?

We are looking more deeply into the sources of our food. We no longer desire the perfection offered by industrialization, with highly processed and preservative laden products, mirrored by their artificial packs and wraps, unnatural and reconstituted. We care about the cultural, communal, educative value of our food production and want real gestures, that feel natural and instinctual. Project 7 is a good example of a brand wanting to do good by, for example, ‘Brewing for a better world’ and using naming as a campaign’able slogan and pack copy as the brand manifesto. Forthright, truth and transparency that calls for action and collaboration.

How are we gaining unadulterated pleasure through food?

We are seeking escape through extreme fantasy. New expressions, atmospheres and immersive environments are bringing to life the visions of avant-garde groups and skilled chefs inspired by the earliest epicureans to conceptual artists. These movements are coming together to create new symbols, narratives and languages and an evolving creative direction built on fantasy and aspiration.

Challenging creativity is the future. We have a bold vision for the future of taste and you, designers have to carry that boldness and clarity of thought through your work. We need to go beyond the graphic clichés of ribbons, nostalgia, and the 3d photoshop button and find and be inspired by new, powerful sensorial and visceral cues that are naturally inherent within food and drink and find new ways to create the iconic or revolutionary visual expression of the future. More to be revealed Thursday!

To hear more, please join me at The Dieline Conference on June 23 or e-mail me for a copy of the ‘Taste’ report – jonathan@pearlfisher.com

Jonathan Ford

Creative Partner, Pearlfisher

Jonathan is a designer and co-founder of Pearlfisher, the leading American and UK design agency, with one of the best track records for design and commercial effectiveness for brands.

www.pearlfisher.com

www.twitter.com/jforddesigns

www.twitter.com/pearlfisherlive

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