“Like A Bee is a series of educational tools dealing with the disappearance of honeybees and their vital connection to our food system. In the past several years, honey bees have been disappearing at an alarming rate. Scientists have not been able to pinpoint the main cause of honey bee death. However, loss of habitat, pollution, pesticides, genetic modification, immunodeficiencies, malnutrition, changes in beekeeping practices, and other human initiated factors are possible and likely causes.
Honey bees are incredibly important to our food and our lives. They pollinate the majority of the produce that we eat. If bees completely disappeared, most of our fruit would vanish. Apples, almonds, berries, squash, melons, stone fruit, and more would all be gone within the first year without any bees. Over time, many other plants would not be pollinated and would cease to reproduce. Food prices would skyrocket, food shortages would be commonplace, and our meals would consist of some grains and processed foods.
Like A Bee is made up of three sections that address this problem by teaching the audience about the issue, asking them to engage with the cause, and prompting them to take action. These three approaches are titled Work Like A Bee, Swarm Like A Bee, and Sting Like A Bee.
This project builds upon previous ideas of sustainability’s role in both the content and creation of my work. Some questions I have asked myself throughout the duration of this project include
How do you get people to care about and invest in a cause?
How can graphic design represent sustainability through both its content and physical embodiment? Are there alternative forms of thinking and production that can bring about a more sustainable world?
What does designing like a bee look like? How can bee behavior influence how I ask people to think and act?”