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REFLECTION

Studio 1 presented itself as quite a challenging and unique course. Breaking the course into the core and essentials and then consequentially the three stages of the essentials creating a sense of segregation between the Studio 1 classes. I therefore felt a lack of connection between the outcomes yet saying that the experience and design outcome worked in unison to create and unique collaborative design based experience. The Essentials class worked to give an in depth study of how to efficiently and professionally manage the processes behind a design which is extremely useful to be applied with clients in a range of design disciplines. The studio 1 course gave insight into the studio format going forward into 2nd and 3rd year and gave and interesting and unique exploration into the world of food design.

FOOD EVENT

The pinacle of Studio 1 was the final Food Event. The Food Event was a celebration of the combined work from all Studio 1 classes. Each class displayed their outcomes from the year. These ranged from recipe publications, to animations, to food based illustrations. Our class worked to create lemonade to deliver to the audience of the food event. Our design outcomes were a in a range of outcomes therefore we chose to do a communal food related experience.

FOOD AS DESIGN

Source: Marti Guixe

Throughout this year we discussed the holisitc view that all design is food in a form. This idea was introduced through theory based concepts by Andy within the weekly lectures. We discussed the concept that all design is the process of borrowing ideas and reusing concepts that have been used within society. This process of reinventing and taking immediate inspiration from concepts from a previous time, purpose, style and aesthetic. In this theory design is not the creation of original material but instead is a type of recipe in which we take concepts and ideas much like ingredients and work them into new creations for which they serve a purpose. I found this theory to be extremely interesting as we usually are narrow in our approach to thinking that work we create is unique and new, yet subconsciously are impacted and influenced by all the things around us.

lukesikora-blog

Week 12:

Practical

In the practical we went over our final submissions for our 25 recipes. We also made those last final touches to our designs in order to make them perfect or in my case a disaster. We also got to have a look at the binders as Andy brought them into class which gave us a good opportunity to mock up how our designs will look inside.

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Another class outcome of the Studio 1 course in which the class explored designing unique menu formats.

REVIEW - PACKAGING PROCESS

Once the designs were refined and completed, I began the process of creating the final coffee-packaging. After several printing sessions to understand scale and before printing the finals on A4 adhesive. The designs were cut out before the they were carefully placed on the brown paper bag material. Following the topic of fair trade I choose to create the design from a found material in which would have a low carbon emission and therefore could follow the regulations of the fair trade coffee market. Tissues were used to create a mockup that contains form and volume to give the final result a realistic mock up aesthetic to it. A small tag was created using the brand logo to create a seal in which is visually appealing and makes a connection with the primary label.

REVIEW

The final design outcomes for Studio 1 worked to create a series of three corresponding packaging design that work to explore the role of gender/sex related branding techniques with a contemporary take. The conceptualised brand “SEXLESS ROASTERS” worked to give context to the imagery and colour palette of each design. The use of gender neutral typefaces within the simple monochromatic central logo label worked to unconventionally question the norms of packaging in which usually methods such as typography are used to attract a certain target demographic.

AMBIGUOUS

The yellow design works to clearly convey a gender neutral aspect of packaging. The use of the yellow tone is quite ambiguous and not traditionally associated with one or the other. The use of the qhite vector pattern of the gender symbol icons worked to create a simple design that effortlessly conveys to people of all sex/genders.

MALE

The blue design worked to challenge the traditional use of blue to attract the attention within the market place of the male demographic. The dark and immersive tone of blue is challenged by the imagery of an extremely traditional floral art deco imagery. This traditionally feminine and soft imagery works to challenge the audience into questioning the norms of male/female packaging.

FEMALE

The opposite of this was explored through the use of a vivid hot pink tone which is an extremely female related colour. This is matched with an abstracted splatter pattern which works to create contrast as it is a more masculine shape and scale. All three work in harmony to question the norms of branding through imagery, typography and colour theory.

REVIEW

The menu was one of many curated and intricate parts that made up our “Sex in the Kitchen” food related experience. The simple yet contemporary design worked to inform the audience of the nature of the experience and get them to delve into the cultural and historical aspect of 4 diverse coffee related beverages. The rationale, research, setup and purpose of our experience was all explained in detail through the 12 page document, yet the overlying goal was to create a highly social and informative experience in which involves all aspects of the person’s senses to inform them about diversity and cultural origin of both conventional and non conventional coffee beverages.

FINAL DESIGN

parravan

Comm design Core Studio 1 Our group got the task of branding the instagram page. We decided to stick with current RMIT branding that is currently out on bowen st walkthrough (for all the new strEAT shops) so it would streamline and be relevant to RMIT, and stay neutral to the group as a whole rather than somebodies indivdual idea. We created a display logo, aswell as a series of posts to insert between students work to help break it up in the feed! #rmitfoodfest

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Another use of food related branding to convey certain messages, ideas and aesthetics!

FINAL DESIGN

“People all over the world rely on it to wake up, yet many of the 25 million small-holder coffee farmers who depend on it for their livelihoods struggle to survive.”

Source: Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand

For our final outcome of Studio 1 we had to explore the topic of Sex in the Kitchen. Our group as previously discussed focused on gender/sex stereotypes and methods used commonly throughout packaging and branding through the world of coffee. In our own personal design outcome the group wished to explore different types of coffee individually. I choose to explore fair trade coffee. Fair Trade is defined as “trade in which stable prices, decent working conditions and the empowerment of farmers and workers takes place around the world.”

Coffee is known as a highly volatile commodity, with wide price fluctuations year to year. This is due to coffee production being highly dependent on weather conditions, susceptible to disease and influenced by a range of other factors. For the 125 million people globally whose livelihood is dependent on it, this is bad news. Climate change represents a dire threat for coffee farmers, indeed many farmers are already reporting negative impacts from changing weather patterns and increased pest activity that have led to lower quality and reduced yields.

I wanted to explore this type of coffee as I believe it directly relates to the experience we delivered which delves into the diversity and cultural background behind coffee. This design around a conceptual product that ensures the farmers in which the coffee comes from are given fair pay and other essential rights works on a deeper level to just where a cappuccino is from, as it explores the roots of the coffee used to create them.

CONCEPTUALISE

The topic of food design works to allow for conceptualisation of ideas and solutions based around sustainability. The food sector is one in which is challenged by the demand of the rapidly growing population having to be constantly consuming foods and therefore the movement towards more sustainable practices of growing, harvesting, refining, re-planting, consuming and adapting is a huge issue in which challenges future generations.

Through food design solution based critical design thinking can be captured to explore these ideas in innovative and creative ways. Guixe explores this concept through his fascinating design of the lollipop. Traditional lollipops work on a one life cycle approach as the food is consumed and the stick is put into land fill. This concept explores a design in which an organic biodegradable stick is used as the candy is formed in the circle shape around the stick as a base. Inside the candy is a single orange tree seed in which after consumption the person can plant alongside the stick for protection and therefore in the process of consuming the food create life and begin a new food life cycle. Although only a concept, solutions such as these need to be seriously considered moving forward within an ever growing and evolving society of supply and demand.

FORM

Source- Marti Guixe

The use of form within food design was an aspect that was explored in a rnage of ways. Both throughout my own personal exploration and the course lecture the manipulation of materials both food related or not, such as the playdoh workshop worked to explore the tangible form that can be designed and created to convey certain messages, such as creating gender neutral mask/characters. Works such as “Three-dimensional tapas”,(photo) created by Spanish food designer Marti Guixe looks at how the common objects of food can be used to create though inspiring and provoking from. The coktail olives are use to link together in the shape of atomic models, exploring the correlation of the atomic makeup that works to create all things, including food such as olives.

“Even bad coffee is better than no coffee at all.” ― David Lynch

The coffee making experience documented through video vision of the coffee station. As seen, the collaborative design process worked to involve everyone in range of stages, from choosing the font of the menu to the making of the coffee.

OUR EXPERIENCE

Through the sequential process of brainstorming, refining ideas and planning and allocating the roles and specifics of our curated experience. As seen through the documentation the experience offered the audience a holistic and collaborative experience in which all senses were stimulated and engaged in a meaningful way.

As the audience worked into the workshop they were thrown into an environment in which the audio taken of a coffee shop was playing through the speaker system aswell as the interior of a coffee shop displayed on the monitor. These aspects worked to stimulate the audience in a sensory way and create a coffee culture like environment. The secondary response was the information delivered on the menus that were printed out at large scale and distributed around the room. The unconventional aspect of the menu exploring the historical and cultural origin of the 4 beverages that were available worked to inform the audience on the topic of coffee on a deeper level. The environment worked to stimulate all sense through the touch of the coffee beverage and interaction with the menu, sight through the highly social and curated environment aswell as vision of the coffee making experience, sound through the audio recording adding depth to the sensory experience and the sound of the coffee making process, taste through the indulgence of the chosen beverage either conventional or unconventional and smell through the aroma of the coffee. These aspect of creating an informative and holistic experience that is designed to explore diversity aswell as the world of coffee culture was a highly interesting and immersive exploration.

OUR EXPERIENCE

As part of the studio 1 course, a curated and food related experience is to be delivered to the class. In small groups of three we discussed and brainstormed possible food related experiences. We chose to finalise on a coffee related design experience that explored the topics of diversity through informing about the cultural origin of conventional and non conventional coffee beverages.

This worked to relate with our individual design outcomes as we wanted to branch out of this and explore sex in the kitchen through exploring gender/sex related packaging design through coffee. We wanted to challenge peoples’ stereotypical knowledge of advertising design norms through aspects such as imagery, message, colour scheme and typography

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