Project Brief
Make the Invisible, Visible.
What's an obscure topic that you know a lot about?
This project challenged us to delve into a lesser-known topic and translate our findings into a visual artefact. Through research and exploration, our artefact should aim to demystify this topic and make it accessible to a wider audience.
Research
Exploring Nutrition
Building on my interest in nutrition, particularly in schools, I conducted primary and secondary research to explore the topic. This initial research focused on assessing students' understanding of nutrition and their eating habits.
Primary + Secondary Research (Examples)
Conducted Field notes of LCC food area
Conducting Verbal interviews & Google Surveys
Researching online documents and journals
While my initial research showed that students generally understood nutrition and could use online resources effectively, this didn't align with the project's goal of exploring a less-known topic.
I pivoted my research to the more niche and pressing issue of food insecurity, a concern even among students.
Exploring Food Insecurity
Food insecurity (FI) is defined as lacking consistent access to sufficient, affordable, and nutritious food. While food insecurity is a recognised issue, many of its contributing factors and broader implications remain less understood.
Through my research, I aimed to uncover these lesser known factors and complexities.
I researched the UK's food poverty landscape through a variety of sources (Articles, journals and research papers), and explored topics such as the causes and consequences of food insecurity, the role of urban design, food banks, obesity, food inflation and more.
Focusing on the link between urban design and food insecurity, I used an online street database to identify neighborhoods with significant income gaps and Google Maps to analyze the available food options.
Core Insights
Sifting through my research data, I broke it down into two main categories: Factors that contribute to FI (left) and impacts of it (right). After consulting with others and reviewing previous interviews to ensure that the data wasn't widely known, I narrowed down the data categories to:
Factors that contribute to FI
Urban Design
Social Causes
Adversity, Illnesses, Disabilities
Food waste
Flaws in support system
Poverty
Others
Impacts of FI
Education & Career Prospects
Health
Intergenerational Impacts
Impacts on the NHS
Development
My project aims to educate users about the hidden causes and consequences of food insecurity, foster empathy, promote food appreciation, and provide accessible resources for those who wish to help.
I chose a child's lunchbox as the form for my artifact to symbolise the experience of opening a lunchbox from a food-insecure household.
My design evolved with practicality in mind. Starting with a (1.) modular lunchbox featuring laser-cut, removable parts, I then (2.) added a brochure and cutlery to enhance the experience. Lastly, I (3.) simplified the lunchbox's shape to an A4 box to streamline production and comply with size requirements..
The final design was an iteration of the third development, as i felt that my artefact now had too many parts that created a sensory overload. To keep my project intuitive for viewers, I streamlined the design by cutting out the cutleries.
Lunchbox Making
To realistically represent the contents of a lunchbox from a food-insecure household, I needed to identify common, less-nutritious school lunch items. This involved researching online blogs and Reddit forums. The props were then prepared by emptying, washing, and obscuring the packaging.
I digitally recreated the graphics with illustrator, matching each brand's design language through color schemes, typefaces, text effects, and font sizes. After printing and cutting the graphics, I applied them to the original packaging. This process involved several reprints due to sizing errors.
After creating Photoshop mockups and testing color variations with mini A4 printouts, I printed the dieline on the workshop's wide printer. With help from technicians, I made the necessary cuts and folds, before bringing it home to manually glue the sides and fold it up.
Zine Making
My zine design process began with Procreate, where I used a template to create the layout. The initial concept encompassed the causes, consequences, and ways to address food insecurity. I further developed this idea with a low-fidelity version in Figma.
Mirroring the fun, bright aesthetic of the child's lunchbox, the zine was designed with a friendly, youthful look to resonate with younger readers.
Hence, I hand-drew illustrations that accompanied the data provided on the zine, with the purpose of the graphics to help readers feel more engaged.
The zines were printed on 250gsm paper and then hand-cut, and then hand-bound using saddle-stitching with needles, a ruler, and yarn to create the holes and creases.
Whats For Lunch?
A visual exploration of the causes and consequences of Food Insecurity
Solution
Whats For Lunch? Lunchbox
Zines
Drivers of Hunger
A deep dive into the root causes of FI, exposing societal cracks like flawed urban design, social inequalities, adversity, food waste, inadequate support systems, and poverty.
A Hungry Future
An exploration into the consequences of FI, exploring themes such as health, education and career, generational impacts and public healthcare, while introducing ways for readers to contribute to combatting FI.
