Design & healthy food habits

Neon Melons 2008

We can discuss the role of packaging to promote healthy food until our faces turns blue. But there need to be a demand that creates initiatives and thereof budgets to produce healthy food products.  This is when designers and creatives can start to create delicious irresistible branding and packaging, tempting the consumer to a different purchasing decision.

There are already many nice examples of food packaging promoting healthy products on the US market. Some general examples are water,  fruit juices (not all of them so healthy though) and specialized food products found in the deli section, taking packaging and design to another level. (The design as an integrated part of the branding where the consumer also buy into image and lifestyle, not only the product ) 

Unfortunately many of these products are found in the expensive food isles, making them unavailable for those who would have needed them most. And some are so specialized that you by social demographics already have excluded 75 % of the population as potential buyers. 

What we need is manufacturers producing and selling products to the mass food markets that are brave enough to be a little progressive when it comes to packaging too. A prediction is that some of those who dare to step up to this challenge might be winners in the long run. What we have started to see these days of campaigns and effort to fight obesity and make America healthy again is just a beginning. What before have been healthy fashion and exercise trends belonging to minor high education/income segments of the population has and will continue to go mainstream. The reality series "The biggest looser" is a good example of that.

It's not only about packaging but also the concept of food and how we think and feel about it. These are social related factors, habits and values that goes beyond the packaging and can take a bit longer to change. But the future is promising with a first lady now reaching the 1 year anniversary for her initiative "Let's Move", to fight obesity and improve the health of children. But it surely doesn't hurt to have new thinking companies around either. "Editable Arrangements" is a good example on how a company can change our view on a food concept, by making fruit just as tempting like any box of chocolate. 

The inspiration for this blogpost is an article written by Alexandra Lange: What should food look like? 

Egyptian Blue

This could certainly have been a title of a sad blues song these days. As mentioned in the blogpost Have a colorful new year! I am trying to squeeze in some time  dedicated to a  project about colors. Ironically, before and during the early days of the riots in Egypt research lead me to Egyptian blue.

Some may have been be astonished, even shocked  to see how rocks, slings and primitive tools have been used in this war of freedom. I think it is important to remember that we are talking about a civilization that in prior times have been one of the most advanced in its time. What is truly fascinating is to understand how modern the ancient Egyptians were in their thinking and in their perception of the world. If you're not so into the history of colors here are some simple facts you need to know:  In the beginning all colors were developed, processed and extracted from plants and minerals all over the world and colors were an  important source for wealth and power - a big business commodity that in our days would have been traded on Wall Street! These were times were colors could have enormous power. As an example, the color purple was so sacred in some regions of the world that in our times it would have led to tickets and jail sentences if you wore too much of it not being a priest or a "holy" man.

Egyptians loved their blues and used many variations in a vast production of arts & crafts. Egyptian blue is made of silica, lime, copper and alkali and considered to be the first synthetic pigment invented and developed by the Egyptians thousands of years ago. An alternative to the much more expensive  mineral (stone) Lapis Lazuli. What really is astonishing, this accomplishment were a result of Egypt as a settled agricultural society far ahead of most countries. A civilization looking into the future encouraging growth of a non-labor workforce (like clerics) and advancement in science and the arts. It's time to look into the future again. Continued growth and expansion have better chances through a democracy giving the people, especially the young hope and strength and to avoid isolation in a globalized world.

Choices

And here's some slammin', jammin' groovy feelgood music: