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What is Food Design? The complete overview of all Food Design sub-
disciplines and how they merge.

Article · November 2016

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Francesca Zampollo
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Francesca Zampollo, Ph.D.

The first thing people always assume when they hear the words Food Design, is that it’s about “how
you put stuff on a plate”. No. Food Design is not food styling. Or at least, not only. Food Design is
much more.
But before we dive into everything that Food Design is, I want to point your attention to the term
itself: Food Design is made of two words, food and Design. Noticing this seemingly obvious
combination of words really does make things clearer to those approaching this discipline for the first
time. If you ask me, Food Design is as much about food, as it is about Design.
To me, the best way to understand what Food Design is, is to understand what Design is, because
Food Design is, after all, a Design discipline. Just like there is Product Design, Graphic Design, and
Interior Design, there is also Food Design. So, let’s see what Design is.
I like to start explaining Design using a quote I really like by Wouter Stokkel: It’s art if it can’t be
explained. [...], It’s design if it doesn’t need an explanation. Art is personal; it is personal to the artist
and to the viewer. Art is interpreted differently by each viewer. Personal interpretation is good,
because art is there to trigger thoughts and emotions that are intimate, maybe private, definitely
subjective. Design on the other hand, should be universal. Design should be - in general, but there are
exceptions - easily understandable and usable by anybody. Imagine if you had to interpret an iPhone,
and dig deep into your feelings and memories to understand how to use it.
My favourite definition of Design is by John Heskett: Design is the deliberate and reasoned shaping
and making of our environment in ways that satisfy our needs and give meaning to our lives (consider
that the word “environment” here means more than the physical surroundings, but rather any possible
stimulus human beings can interact with). Given any definition of Design, you can have a definition of
Food Design just by making the said definition specific to food. For example: Food Design is the
deliberate and reasoned shaping and making of our food environment in ways that satisfy our needs
and give meaning to our lives. And there you have it: a perfectly good definition of Food Design. So
remember, Food Design is any act of design applied to anything food or eating related. In fact, my
personal definition of Food Design is:

Food Design is, simply, the connection between food and Design. Food Design is the design process
that leads to innovation on products, services or systems for food and eating: from production,
procurement, preservation, and transportation, to preparation, presentation, consumption, and
disposal.
And now that we have a definition, let’s really dive into the vast world of Food Design.
Back in 2007, I created a Food Design sub-categorization that helped me, and later on many other
people, to understand how multifaceted the Food Design discipline is. During the past year, I’ve been
looking at, considering, and re-considering this sub-categorization. I have been scratching my head,
thinking, pondering, and re-evaluating, and now it’s now time to take Food Design, and once again
visualise its sub-disciplines, with some additions. This time, in a way that shows how these Food
Design sub-disciplines intersect and merge, and how other disciplines inform and influence Food
Design.
So, here is my proposition for what Food Design is. Version 2.0.

Okay, let’s start from Food Product Design. In this Food Design sub-discipline, where food is the
material designers design with, we find edible products that are designed for mass production:
Pringles, pasta, packaged ice-cream, chocolate, snacks, etc.
The food product designer usually has a background in product design or industrial design: he
understands how the food material is molded, printed, extruded, and so on. He might also be familiar
with packaging design, or he might collaborate with a packaging designer. The Food Product
Designer usually doesn’t have a vast expertise in food science and food technology, maybe a little bit,
maybe none, so he is likely to collaborate with a food scientist when it comes to designing the recipe
of the food material he is using.
For example, years ago, I designed a chocolate snack. My background was in industrial design, so I
took care of the shape of the snack itself and how it was manufactured, but I collaborated with a food
scientist who created the recipe of the chocolate filling and coat, and with a packaging designer who
was doing all the packaging and graphic for that particular chocolate company.
Then there is Design For Food. In this Food Design sub-discipline, we design not only products like
pots and pans, plates, cutlery, and containers, but also from blenders, rice cookers, and toasters, to
ovens, fridges, and 3D food printers; and finally packaging. In short, Design For Food is about all
those products designed to prepare, cook, serve, contain and transport food.
Here, the food designer is again someone with a background in product or industrial design, often in
packaging design, in which case he might or might not have the expertise in graphic design as well,
and if he doesn’t, he is likely to collaborate with a graphic designer. In general, the Design For Food
designer is likely to collaborate, at some point in his design process, with someone with extensive
food knowledge. For example, if he is designing a pan, he will have long and extensive conversations
with chefs, to learn from them what they need and like in a pan. If he is designing the packaging for a
particular cheese for a cheese company, he will definitely be talking to the cheese maker, and maybe
a food scientist who knows what the cheese needs to stay fresh. Also, he needs to know how the
cheese changes after two days or a week, and whatever other cheese knowledge necessary to
maintain it, transport it, present it, and of course, eat it.
Notice that there is an intersection between Food Product Design and Design For Food. This is
because food products always come in a packaging, which is a result of Design for Food. So these two
sub-disciplines are definitely linked, and food product designers and Design For Food designers, will
often collaborate.
Then there is Design With Food. In this sub-discipline, we find all the products that come from the
genius of chefs who push the boundaries of culinary arts. In Design With Food again, products are
edible, but this time they are not designed for mass production, they are instead designed to be
made, and eaten soon after. Let’s say that in Design With Food, there is no transportation involved
between the place where the food is made, and the place where it is consumed, but there could be a
customer buying this food directly where it is made, and taking it home to eat it. So we’re talking
about dishes from the restaurant scenario for example, sandwiches from places like Subway or my
favourite Pret a Manger, or cakes from a wedding cake shop, and bread and cronuts from bakeries. In
this case, the food designer is definitely someone with a culinary arts background, or even somebody
who has just studied baking for example. The food designer here is somebody who knows how to
make food, and makes it himself. There can sometimes be some collaboration with food scientists to
help with a specific recipe. In the case of the restaurant, or cafe scenario, this food designer should
really collaborate with the restaurant manager, service staff, and anyone involved in the running of the
service, not just the other chefs who are making the food.
There is one consideration I want to make here. What I am implying here is that, chefs are indeed food
designers. But what I want to specify that not all chefs are food designers. Let’s remember that Food
Design is a Design discipline. There are many ways to define Design, but it is generally agreed that
Design leads to some type of innovation. Therefore in my opinion, only those chefs, who really push
the boundaries in terms of cooking techniques, technologies, and the search for emotional responses
from customers, are actually food designers, because these are the chefs who are innovators in their
field, including those who do not refer to themselves as food designers.
Notice that there is an intersection between Design With Food and Design For Food, and this is
because food is always served on some type of vessel: usually a plate in the restaurant scenario, a cup
in the cafe scenario, or a simple paper bag at your local bakery. Those dishes, cups and bags are
designed by Design For Food designers, which means that Design With Food designers, chefs or
bakers, should indeed collaborate with the designer who designs the vessel in which their food is
served or contained. This is because the vessel, its material, shape, texture, and ability to maintain
moisture or temperature, will indeed influence the overall experience of eating that food. There is also
an intersection between Design With Food, and Food Product Design, due to the likability of chefs
and food scientists to be asked to work on the recipe of food products.
Then, Food Space Design. In this sub-discipline, we find all food spaces, which include the eating
spaces as well as the cooking spaces. This means that food space designers design the restaurant
itself, with everything that is inside, furniture, layout, lights, music, etc. Similarly, we find cafes,
bakeries, and food trucks. But also, think about the cinema. There is a food space where the popcorns
and drinks are prepared and served, which is of course designed, but there is also a food space where
the food is eaten, which is the theatre itself. Almost all theatres have in fact a cup holder between
seats: someone thought it would be a great idea to free people’s hands from having to hold their
drink while simultaneously eat their popcorn. Great. And that’s it… this is in my opinion one of those
areas where more food design can be done.
A Food Space Designer has a background in interior design or architecture, he understands spaces,
and he designs both the eating space as well as the cooking space. In fact, notice that there is an
intersection between Food Space Design and Design With Food, because all chefs, bakers, sandwich
makers do need a cooking space, which should be designed to respond to their needs. For this
reason, Food Space Designers are always collaborating with the chefs or bakers for which they are
designing a kitchen layout, as well as with the restaurant and cafes owners or managers who knows
what the eating space should feel like for their customers.
Finally, let’s talk about Eating Design. This is about designing the entire eating situation; and by
eating situation I mean any situation in which there is someone eating something. In my opinion,
Eating Design is about designing one-off eating situations, which means that it is different from
designing permanent services like restaurants and cafes, and it is really about designing those dinners
or lunches that happen one time only. In a simplistic way, this is what most caterings do, they design
an eating event that lasts a few hours to one day: a wedding banquet, a business lunch, a baby
shower buffet, a birthday party, whatever it is. The most interesting part of eating design is that eating
designers have to - but really get to - design everything: from the food itself, the vessel, the elements
of the space like layout, music, and lighting, and number and role of service staff. This means that
when it comes to designing for the eating experience, eating designers have absolute control over the
vast majority of the aspects that influence it. And this is fun. Free from the constraints of a static space,
we have seen how many eating designers have attached spoons or other vessels on the wall, and
placed food on it. Food can also be walking around us hanging from an umbrella carried around by
the waiter, like the example from the NYC based catering company Pinch Food Design).
With this freedom of course also comes a lot of multidisciplinary work. We can see in fact that Eating
Design intersects with Design With Food because the food itself is designed, it intersects with Design
For Food because the food’s vessel is designed, and it intersects with Food Space Design because the
food space, and sometimes the temporary cooking space, is designed. This also means that the eating
designer usually collaborates with a lot of people, because he rarely has knowledge and skills in so
many disciplines. First of all, the eating designer often collaborates with one or more chefs in
designing food that aligns with the his or her vision. The eating designer also often collaborates with
product designers to design custom-made vessels that allow the food to be served in a way that helps
conveying that same vision. The eating designer then is likely to collaborate with a Space Designer, as
to design the entire space, or even just custom-made pieces of furniture. Similarly he could consult
with a light designer, and hire a musician, a band or a DJ, to play the music that is specific to the
atmosphere he or she wants to create. And finally the eating designer will have to at least instruct the
service staff to move, talk and behave in a certain way; here their role could be as simple as standing
on the corner with a tray, to full on performances. The eating designer does not work alone.
These Food Design sub-disciplines more or less correspond to what I initially proposed in 2007. From
now on, we’re in new territory.
Another Food Design sub-discipline is Food Service Design. Food Service Design is Service Design
applied to food. This is the future in my opinion. This is where we should concentrate our time and
efforts. Matt Hunter, chief Design Officer at the Design Council, describes services as “something that
I use but that I do not own”, so you have an idea of all the services that exist and the different types of
services. I use the electricity to switch on lights in my house, there is a service behind that, but I don’t
own the electricity; I use taxis but I don’t own them; I buy coffee at a coffee shop, but I don’t own the
coffee shop... and so on. Services are made of things, places, spaces, systems of communication,
people, organizations and interactions. Because services are permeated with human activity, between
customers, between service stuff, and between customers and service stuff just to mention a few, they
are complex. In the 20 century, designers were supposed to create and develop simple objects.
th

Towards the end of the century designers realized that generating successful solutions required
including in the process more and more unpredictable factors whose behaviours are impossible to
completely predict: aka human beings. So, user-centred design exploded. Designers started realising
that since we’re ultimately designing for people, then we should put people in the picture, actually, at
the centre of the picture. This also meant that designers had to get used to the idea of navigating into
complexity. It is in this context that design started being less about the final object, and more about
the interaction between people and that object. It was not about designing the cup of coffee
anymore, it became more about designing the situation in which people buy and enjoy that cup of
coffee: with it’s environment, human interactions, tangible factors, and outcome. This interaction is an
activity that occurs over time, an activity with goals and results. Ezio Manzini, probably one of the
fathers of Service Design, calls this an action platform. Whenever we design something we’re
designing an action platform: a system that makes a multiplicity of interactions possible. Within food,
services are for example cafes and restaurants, cafes, hospital kitchens serving food in the patient’s
room and in the canteen, food catering in airplanes, as well as a hotdog carts, fruit and veggies shops,
and food trucks. When you think of designing a service, you have to remember that you’re designing
the setting, the aesthetic cues, the structure of the events and the overall eating situation; and you’re
also managing the presence of fellow customers and linking the backstage activities with the front
stage experience.
As you can see, Food Service Design completely encircles Eating Design, because all possible
outcomes of Eating Design are services; a catering business, or food event business, do in fact provide
a service.
Food Service Design also intersects with Food Space Design, because often food services have a food
space that needs to be designed: a food shop, a canteen, even a hospital food service has a cooking
space and a unique eating space that need to be designed. Food services, though not always, have a
tangible space. For example, consider sharing economy apps like ‘Too Good To Go’, an app that
allows you to buy from restaurants leftovers at a low price, food that would otherwise go in the bin.
This type of food services only have the virtual space of the app or website. Which also means that
food service designers might have to collaborate with web or app designers. Another reason why not
all Food Space Design is included within Food Service Design, is because Food Space Design is also
about designing the domestic cooking and eating spaces: kitchens and dining rooms for example.
Food Service Design also intersects with Design For Food, because when it comes to services too,
there’s plenty of vessels needed to prepare and serve food. Again, not all Design For Food is included
in Food Service Design because Design For Food is also about designing domestic cooking and
eating utensils.
Food Service Design then intersects with Food Product Design, because many food services, like
supermarkets, convenience stores, and cafes, sell packaged food products.
Finally, Food Service Design intersects with Design With Food, because chefs, again those who design
the food itself, often operate within a service: restaurants, cafes, food trucks, caterings, hospital
canteens, etc. At the same time, not all Design With Food is included in Food Service Design because
I believe it is possible for innovation to also happen in domestic kitchens. I think there are out there,
chefs or regular people who design incredible combinations of ingredients, flavours, and shapes,
served in a certain way, on a certain vessel, as to trigger intense, positive emotions in people, and
therefore creating long lasting memories. Isn’t this innovation?
One more Food Design sub-discipline is Critical Food Design. Critical design, sometimes also referred
to as concept design, was made popular by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby. Critical Food Design is
simply Critical Design applied to food and eating. Critical Food Design is the discipline that makes us
think about food and eating issues, that raises awareness, exposes assumptions, provokes actions, and
sparks debate on food related issues, problems and future possible scenarios. Critical Food Design is
the discipline that joins Critical Design to Food Design; it’s about any Critical Design project applied
to food.
Critical design, sometimes also referred to as concept design, was made popular by Anthony Dunne
and Fiona Raby. The term Critical Design was first used in Anthony Dunne's book, Hertzian Tales
(1999) and later in Design Noir (2001), but we can attribute the roots of Critical Design to the Radical
Design movements which started in 1970, and the conceptual design movement that started in the
1990.
Dunne and Raby’s say that “Critical Design uses speculative design proposals to challenge narrow
assumptions, preconceptions and givens about the role products play in everyday life. It is more of an
attitude than anything else”. “What is it for? Mainly to make us think. But also raising awareness,
exposing assumptions, provoking action, sparking debate, even entertaining in an intellectual sort of
way, like literature or film” (from dunneandraby.co.uk).
Critical Food Design therefore is the discipline that makes us think about food and eating issues. It
raises awareness, exposes assumptions, provokes actions, and sparks debate on food related issues,
problems and future possible scenarios. Even though this term has never been used to define this
Food Design sub-discipline before the beginning of 2016, when I first used, many designers have in
fact been practicing Critical Food Design. Marti Guixe is one of the most well known critical designers,
and he has worked a lot with food. Israeli Designer Lee Ben David has designed cutlery to be use use
with just one specific type of food. The designer's aim was to highlight the unnatural disconnect she
believes cutlery creates between diners and their meals. Finally, designer Marre Moerel has designed
a collection of dishware meant to promote thought and discussion about how, what, where and why
we eat. From her website marremoerel.com: “The pieces are molded and cast directly from animal
organs, such as cow hearts and livers, pig intestines, sheep brains, bull testicles etc. The shape and
function of each object were derived from its original, natural form, without further manipulation or
‘design’”.
Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby in their website dunneandraby.co.uk state that “there are many people
doing this who have never heard of the term critical design and who have their own way of describing
what they do. Naming it Critical Design is simply a useful way of making this activity more visible and
subject to discussion and debate”. Similarly, we can state that there are many people doing Critical
Food Design who have their own way of describing what they do. Naming it Critical Food Design is
simply a useful way of making this activity more visible and subject to discussion and debate.
I have put Critical Food Design outside all the other sub-disciplines, and therefore circling all of them,
because Critical Food Design has the potential of being applied to any of these sub-disciplines.
Critical Food Design has been applied to Design For Food, and it has also been applied to Eating
Design, even if the designers did not explicitly say they were doing Critical Food Design. Probably
one of my favourite examples is Salvage Supperclub, created by Josh Treuhaft, which is a series of
dinners hosted in a dumpster, and designed to serve dishes using expired and aesthetically imperfect
foods that would otherwise finish in...the dumpster. Dinners designed to really make people think.
Next is Food System Design. Have you ever heard about System Design? We can certainly talk about
Food System Design too! What is a system? Well, it is basically the overview of every possible aspect
that comes into play for anything you design. It’s really about thinking about where things come from,
where they go, who moves them and how. In Food System Design, you’ll be answering questions like:
What is the environment of this product or service? What is the feedback loop that the system uses to
correct its actions? How does the system measure its achievements and failures? Who defines the
system, environment, goal, and monitors its intersections? What resources does the system have for
maintaining the relationships it desires? Are its resources sufficient to meet its purpose? Etc.
Most products and dishes, each tangible thing people eat, is part of an environment and of a service,
and each service is part of a bigger system. Think about it; strawberry cream cheese (product) is sold
at the supermarket (food service). Supermarkets are not only building filled with products, but these
spaces are part of a network of people and other companies that enable purchase and distribution of
products. Even more broadly the company which produces the strawberry cream cheese has its own
network of people and companies for the purchase and distribution of the ingredients and packaging.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are services that will allow you to dispose of the cream
cheese’ packaging from your home when you’ve eaten it all. All of these components are part of the
same system. It just depends on what level you want to design; micro (the cream cheese itself), macro
(the entire cream cheese system), or anything in between.
And finally, there is one last Food Design sub-discipline that must be included: Sustainable Food
Design, which is simply Sustainable Design, applied to Food. You can consider Sustainable Food
Design a sub-discipline on its own, but to me, this should actually be an attitude more than a sub-
discipline. An attitude that every designer, and food designer, should use when designing anything.
Everything should be designed to be as sustainable as possible. Actually, in this day and age, we
should only design products or services that are sustainable in terms of food waste, organisational
changes, behavioural changes, materials, agriculture, supply chain, etc.
It is not possible for food designers today to not think about the environmental impact of the materials
they choose. For example, the impact materials have in order to be made, and after they are
disposed. It is not possible for food designers today to not think about the environmental impact of
the production, distribution, preservation and disposal of foods. It is not possible for food designers
today to not think about the environmental impact of industrial farming and industrial agriculture, in
terms of water footprint, energy efficiency and transparency, respect, and equity within trade.
Sustainable Food Design should simply be the sustainable approach that every food designer uses to
make each and every design choice. For this reason, Sustainable Food Design is the outermost circle
in this visualization.
How can you use this Food Design categorization? Well, first of all I think that understanding what
Food Design is, and really having the bigger picture of all its sub-disciplines, will help you figure out
what type of food designer you want to be: given your background, you can see where you fit as a
food designer, but also, given the type of Food Design you want to do, you can see what type of
knowledge and skills you should acquire. In addition, I’d like you to think about this categorization as a
map; a map that shows you the context of your project and guides you to seek the best knowledge
and collaboration you need.

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