Background Stories: Visual Communication of Food Backgrounds . 2006

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Masters Thesis from Design Academy Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

To encourage consumer awareness of how their food choices affect not only themselves, but also global environment and society, consumers need to feel a connection with the environmental, social and economical impacts of their foods.
This thesis is a case for a new direction in product labeling, corporate communication and advertising.
For the exploration of this topic, a focus is taken on foods. As an industry, food already has a high level of trace-ability, due to growing food safety concerns (especially following outbreaks of Foot and Mouth and other such diseases), and consumer demand.

As indicators to support this argument, social and environmental issues are growing in importance in both the corporate sphere and in the public eye. Corporate violations of social responsibility have threatened consumer trust, and thereby lead to a greater consumer demand for information, which thus causes increased transparency on the part of corporations. In business, there is a need to communicate on changes towards social-responsibility. In advertising, the changing role of the ‘brand’ and the continual evolution of advertising (currently away from image-based (ego) appeal) highlight a need for a new direction in marketing communication. Technology already allows such viewing behind the product: using search and tracking tools such as Google, GPS, RFID and RFD tags, consumers can pinpoint and track products through their virtual networks.

Designers are in a prime position to be able to communicate complex background information to consumers. Stefano Marzano of Phillips Design says that as designers, “if we can’t change the nature of people, we can affect their behavior: By designing the environment.”

Much like the Nutrition Facts label changed consumer behavior because it made direct connections between the nutrients of the food and individual health – over time – such communication on the backgrounds can change consumer purchasing behavior. The ‘dolphin-free tuna’ label is another example of this established connection: between buying tuna and harming dolphins. Prior to the money that was put into media to communicate the message behind the ‘dolphin-safe’ mark, consumers were unaware of the connection.