Visual Storytelling with Food: Designing New Perspectives

Meet Nicole Vindel, artist and creative director, and your teacher for this course. She shares her creative journey that led her to found Food Design Nation as well as Random Happiness Art Collective. Hear about her influences and the sources of inspiration that have motivated her along the way.

Start by getting an overview of the history of tableware and food tools, and explore their form, function and symbolism. Decide on the food artifact you want to develop and collect references of variations and designs. Then Nicole walks you through a case study about food narratives to inspire your artifact design.

Create a mindmap to unleash the potential of your design and build a connection with your object. Delve deeper into the brainstorming process by analyzing your mindmap and extracting relevant insights to further shape your design. Nicole then guides you through asking yourself the right questions to tackle potential design problems.

Develop the transformative narrative of your food artifact by creating an “iteration grid”. Nicole guides you through the process of adding meaning to your ideas by drawing them out. Finalize the narrative behind your piece by exploring writing techniques to help encapsulate the depth of your ideas.

With your ideas and narrative clearly defined, it’s time to develop the prototype of your food artifact. Draw its size, proportions, composition, and details. Nicole then demonstrates how to build your prototypes by first defining its dimensions in detail. She also shares tips on collaborating with an artisan to bring your object to life. Wrap up the course by exploring art direction to capture the essence of your artifact through photography.