Food Design Thinking

This is a space to share ideas on Food Design Thinking, which I like to think of as the table talk which becomes part of a larger conversation. The tone of the writing is that of thinking out loud, a mix of academic and colloquial probing. My work in Food Design is relatively new and inspired by personal experience, whereas my work in Design Thinking spans a 20 year career, and based on my personal taste for design research and critical thinking. Hence Food Design Thinking is a weaving of domains, inhabiting the space spanning practice with theory. As a tri-word term can be configured in various ways; Food Design Thinking, FoodDesign-Thinking, Food-DesignThinking or as FoodDesignThinking (FDT), a continuum which might not be legal English, but is how I think best communicates its integrative nature.

This work in progress is organized by clusters of loose ideas simply because they have naturally surged and gelled as the foci of my interests. No attempt is being made to unify these meandering thoughts, hopefully that will happen as they mature. For now it suffices to articulate what is articulable, and developments will appear as back burner ideas take form and are ready to share. The thoughts expressed here are true up until the spring of 2014, moment in which I decided to publish them.

I find it very motivating to work in this field since food is directly related to our own personal and daily lives in a visceral manner, and is one of culture’s greatest form givers. It is also one of the most inclusive and inspiring conversation topics we can all share, bridging gaps between age, class and culture.

On definitions

Since the tenets of Design Thinking are well known and established, I see no reason to discuss them here. On the other hand, the emergence of Food Design merits further considerations to bring into focus the meaning and purpose of combining the two realms under one heading, as proposed here. So to trigger this discussion let’s take a schematic yet provocative question construed around «what is Food Design?» and consider these:

What can Food Design mean for us?
What is a useful working definition of Food Design at this moment?
What do we want Food Design to mean, and why?

As a first step we can look at the two key words separately, and considering the options for putting them together as a term (food design, design food, food and design, design and food, design for food, food for design, design of food, etc.) before reaching the conclusion that the cleanest term is «Food Design». By cleanest I mean that it evokes enough but not too much. It is a real challenge to say such a mouthful, to employ two huge terms together, which is why cleaning it is fundamental. As a footnote, interesting issues arise in other languages in attempts to find the best term, as with Spanish where there is no direct translation for «food» as an all encompassing term (alimentos has a technical connotation, and comida has a more artisanal meaning). This furthers the inquiry into the most useful terminology to reflect our thinking along these lines. For now it is Food Design!

The happiest working definition that I have come up with is: Food Design includes any action which can improve our personal and collective relationship to food in the most diverse ways and instances, including edible products, materials, experiences, environments and processes. By happiest I mean a definition that opens the mind, puts fixed ideas into doubt, and motivates new and critical thinking with a propositive attitude.

Something to keep in mind is that sometimes Food Design is misunderstood to mean genetically modified food (GMO) or even used to signify the styling of food serving and imaging. Another consideration I would give regards the treating of Food Design as a new specialty within the menu of options generally existing in the industrial design discipline, as with furniture, consumer goods, and other product oriented foci. This misses the point all together since food deserves a separate treatment for many reasons, as detailed further below.

When considering definitions one must keep in mind the different contexts in which they are construed. By and large I have sensed three emerging directions in which Food Design is currently being developed as a field of practice, each of which would benefit from a more specific definition useful to its interests and objectives.

One tendency I see is towards a Food Designer who works in industry, in the most traditional sense of an industrial designer’s competence and scope, and growing in presence as design makes headway in various professions. In keeping with the premise that Food Design is not at its fullest potential when encased in a confined role, it is understandable that this type of industry role will not work with the maximum set forth by the working definition proposed here, but many challenges await unmet in industry.
Another direction in which Food Designers are working in has to do with a more personal role centered mainly on participatory experiences and conceptual, artistic expressions. Examples of these initiatives include boutique and author based firms specializing in food events, performances and other highly visual and media prone phenomena, not few of which challenge existing limits and notions regarding what food can mean for us as an experience.
The third area of work which I see being consolidated under the umbrella of Food Design refers to more strategic and research based developments, including systems thinking, social innovation, process design and the like. These initiatives are often academically-related since there is not yet a significant market demand for this area of expertise and sensibility. Examples of this type of interest in Food Design includes innovation oriented (patentable) initiatives, mainly focusing on problem identification and problem solving strategies.

Far from pretending to categorize the recent advances in this emerging field, my purpose is to begin to visualize patterns, clusters and other indicators of interest and activities in an otherwise unmapped territory. There certainly are other directions for Food Design as a field, but these are the ones I see as the major consolidators of activity.

Towards a didactics of Food Design

I have been considering the usefulness of a specific didactics for Food Design, and believe it is worth the challenge. There are sufficient particularities of Food Design as a discipline to merit this consideration, which is why I think it makes sense to pursue it.

As a footnote, my experience in education over the past 20 years (mainly at the university level in the fields of Design and Architecture) has made me concerned about the demotivation and lack of interest in the learning process in general. Even though it is reasonable enough to attribute this educational crisis to new technologies and lifestyles, I believe there is something inherent in the teaching contents and methods which directly affects the student’s response and attention span. This is where Food Design presents a difference, offering an opportunity to engage and inspire students and learners in general, given its particularities detailed below. What this can mean for educators is yet to be seen, but my own experience in this regard has so far been promising.

By way of enumeration of the specifics Food Design entails, and not necessarily in order of importance, are:

Food Design deals with the very real materials we biologically consume in order to live. It is literally vital to our existence.
Food Design deals with products we put into our bodies and which become our bodies. A process of physiological transformations beyond any comprehensible means since we tend to take it for granted. Here the model of food as fuel is controverted since fuel in the mechanistic system does not become the motor, it just runs through it. In the organic system fuel is transformed into the body.
Food Design deals with putting things into our bodies through our mouths, a very intimate and personal act. No small detail that we begin outer life by breast feeding, a most wonderful and miraculous phenomenon of cycling and continuous flows: food into mothers mouth, converted into milk and expelled through the breast, the child sucking it in, converting part of it into his own body, expelling the rest as waste. Unbelievable!
Food Design is an intrinsic part of all of our daily lives to the degree that we consider making food choices an expression of design. This makes Food Design into a familiar and daily practice, not an optional or remote activity.
Food Design has direct implications for our health, both good and bad. This makes it of vital importance to have a good relationship with and around food, and implies ethical considerations at many levels, mainly personal, political and economical.
Food Design looks at all the actors and instances of food as a production, distribution and consumption system, further implying ethical considerations at various levels, including industry, commerce and culture.

Food Design in the Latin-American context recognizes the specific historical moment of the region, celebrating its attributes and uniqueness, while being respectful of limits and unwanted consequences. Latin-America is a significant producer of food steeped in cultural richness and diversity, and is home to a variety of social and production models, many of which consider social innovation as a tool for growth, where others might view it as a threat for survival. This highly permeable, rapidly growing and relatively unstable territory offers a complex and fascinating scenario for Food Design action and interaction.

Another component to consider in thinking of a specific didactics for Food Designs shifts the view towards existing disciplines which work with food in any way and instance, so we can better understand the place and context of which Food Design forms part of. In this sense we can consider three larger areas of academic and professional practice which work with food, namely:

Food Sciences: biology, engineering, chemistry, nutrition, technology, etc.
Food Services: culinary arts, hospitality, gastronomy, etc.
Food Studies: sociology, anthropology, geography, psychology, etc.

Food Design is transdiciplinary in essence, which brings up the question of where this can best fit in an academic context. This consideration depends on many factors, including institutional, cultural, professional and market conditions, but in general terms basic options include:

Food Design being carved out of an existing discipline (Ex: Food Design cluster starts out from a Food Studies Program)
Food Design being created as a consortium of neighboring disciplines (Ex: Food Design Program starts out from a multi disciplinary menu of course offerings)
Food Design being created as its own entity (Ex: Food Design Center is launched on its own)

Another characteristic of Food Design is its trans-actoral nature, transcending closed realms of stakeholders, visualizing decision making cycles, recognizing all the actors involved, from agricultural producers, industry, marketers, media, consumers, post-consumers, and all of these at their varying scales and powers. Food Design cuts across a multiplicity of interests larger than any other issue in our lives, with direct implications of global magnitude regarding climatic, economical and political consequences. This means business; this requires a full and all encompassing vision. Food Design is talking about this in a direct and action oriented manner, it is concerned with asking the right questions before trying to answer them. It is a mode of inquiry made specifically for getting the biggest possible picture regarding food and our relationship to it and our interaction around it.

To further share and discuss these ideas, to mature them enough to start putting them into practice, I have organized a Seminar on Didactics of Food Design in Latin America, to be held in October 2014 at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogota, within the context of the Second Latin-American Meeting on Food Design (organized by redLaFD). This event will help socialize this construction, and out of this initiative we hope to launch something called «Cátedra Latinoamericana de Food Design», consisting of a group of dedicated educators which will work with the guidelines put forth in the Seminar, and develop its implementation in their respective countries and universities. The first place to try out these results will be a pilot course on Food Design offered at the Universidad de la República in Montevideo, scheduled towards the latter part of 2014.

As a closing thought I think that the idea of a Food Design Didactics is in various ways related to the thinking of Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food Movement, as set forth in his works; «Slow Food Nation» and «Food and Freedom». This also gains momentum in the Latin-American context when seen in the ever relevant light of Paolo Freire´s «Pedagogy of the Oppressed». The connection is clear and meaningful, food is our most vital resource and its control is strategic, therefor to the degree that we have food independence, we maintain determination over our own lives. This offers us dignity and identity, two things we cannot negotiate.

New food paradigms

Shifting the conversation now beyond a working definition for Food Design, following are a string of thoughts which go in the same direction, one of redefining a new food paradigm, a
new framework of how we understand and interact with food.

A good place to frame this search can be by reconsidering one of the most famous of all food sayings: you are what you eat! If we turn this phrase around we can consider that you eat what you are. This means that your relationship with food is defined by the way you feel and think, the knowledge you have and the context in which you are immersed. Following this idea, which moves away from a conductivist attitude, we can take full responsibility for making the best food and eating choices and empowering ourselves as co-Food Designers.

The idea of being co-Food Designers is inspired by the Slow Food movement’s vision for us being co-producers as opposed to mere consumers of food. By seeing ourselves as co-producers we share responsibility for what food is produced and for sustaining the community in which this food forms part of. By analogy, co-Food Designers could feel the right and responsibility to act by any means which can improve our relationship to food in the most diverse ways and instances, in any stage and instance. It is not that hard to feel empowered and motivated by this reality since we are all involved in many food choices every day; from what, where, when and how we eat, to a more critical reflection on why we eat. It is surprisingly not as clear as one would think since there are many more complex reasons at work regarding why we eat than meets the eye. Hunger and appetite are two different things, as are wants and desires. Beyond the physiological hunger that triggers our minds to want to eat, we might eat out of duty, guilt, pleasure, convenience, precaution, and other subconscious motives, so it is a relevant question to ask ourselves, it will put us closer to our best interests and practices.

Another implication for being a co-Food Designer is that we can look not only at the food product or material, but we can look at how we relate to it, meaning that it is as important to know how to eat as is getting the right food product on our plates. From eating at the right time, the right amounts, the right order, the right proportions, to knowing how to best chew and swallow, and afterwards how to benefit digestion are just some of the issues which «you eat what you are» brings to attention.

The idea of designing your way to better food choices can be overwhelming, given the immense amount of issues now at stake, the confusion and misinformation surrounding many of them, and the sheer lack of training or education we have in the majority of them. As a footnote, it is astounding yet taken for granted that something so important and meaningful as food is not taught/learned in a deliberate manner for the majority of people at this time in history. Traditionally, food knowledge and practice has been handed down through generations by direct means of family and social life. Generally in women’s domain, food preparation and service has been an integral part of the specific culture it is immersed in, considering geographical, economic and other determining factors. As an example, in the U.S.A. prior to the 1970’s, food preparation instruction was considered a core element in women’s primary education, as part of the domestic skills curriculum known as “Home Economics.” Of course, that venue was only suited to conveying the basic mechanics of food for family life, devoid of any critical social or political context. In the last half century this way of transferring knowledge has been altered, and we are in need of new forms of acquiring the tools, know-how and criteria for better relating to food, and specifically, for producing happy eating situations in our daily lives.

If we begin to identify and analyze the many factors that come into play in our food lives, the prospect can really be terrifying because of the magnitude of the task and because of what some of those factors reveal. Just to name a few, we can start at the production end of the spectrum and begin to recognize food products in nature, and how those natural products go through a long sequence of interventions, both physically and economically. To consider what food products end up being good, clean and fair becomes a real challenge. To jump quickly to the other end of the spectrum, the food choices regarding how we actually eat what we finally decided to buy, brings up many other factors related to eating practices, its ergonomics and consequences. Quite a challenge from any perspective! Who does not long to have a traditional food life, where you don’t encounter so many decisions, so many unknown consequences? –yet this is the reality many of us now face.

A quick look at the major food decision criteria: nutrition, cost, convenience and pleasure. Nutrition is one of the biggest issues when the food choices are necessary, since it directly impacts on our health and well-being. It is interesting to see the changes in nutrition beliefs and paradigms, as with the all too familiar food pyramid, which has suffered many transformations since it was first used in the 1970’s. There is much discussion regarding nutrition and food, and just mentioned here as a consideration that we often base our decisions on information which is questionable at best and is relative regarding culture, context and personal factors.

Regarding cost factors in food choices, I will just mention one less obvious issue, beyond the controversies of food access and food justice which we would all like to see resolved. The cost of food is a complex issue which must consider fairness and sustainability for all stakeholders, so in the big picture maybe some food products should actually have a higher cost than it now does, but other products should have less, a good example being health care not only for its notoriety, but because it is directly related to food accessibility. This points to the distortions and inequalities in many nodes of the supply chain, especially when put into the larger picture of economics, communities, health and long term considerations. Food economics is not something I am well versed in, so I speak from common sense.

Food choices regarding convenience offers many opportunities for involvement and improvement for Food Design. Since I will not go into any depth on this subject, it is worth noting in our daily lives what food choices seem natural and friendly (opening the refrigerator and finding a ready to eat delicious and nutritional food) versus food choices which are very inconvenient (being at work and having to spend time in source food which is does not feel nor taste good). In given contexts (more often in suburbia) it can be difficult and time consuming to acquire fresh and healthy produce from fair and sustainable sources, compared to convenience and super stores. So it is not an easy issue, market and political forces at work, often against our best interest.

As far as pleasure goes, it is a wondrous thing how our bodies and mind change over time, and what we find tasty and enjoyable in a given moment can change, and vice-versa. This also relates back to the idea that «we eat what we are», so as our knowledge and understand grow, and our taste becomes more discriminating, we can associate pleasure with health in a personal and environmental sense.

All in all, food choices can be examined, understood, challenged and changed. Some with little effort, others at great expense and yet others seem unchangeable without a revolution of some sort.
This is as far as my thoughts on FoodDesignThinking have come so far, hoping others can find it of use or motivation.