User:Silviolorusso/research-method/description

What

“The Identity of the Food Product” is a model of communication for food companies. It has been applied to a local company called Molino Artigianale Dibenedetto, a traditional family-owned mill in Puglia, Italy. The use of new media is a relevant aspect of this model: the company's website tracks the daily life of the producers through a blog-like structure. In addition it includes a photographic documentation of the place of production. I also designed a series of booklet printed on flour sacks' paper, containing short stories about the mill and its products.

How

The project is divided in two phases. The first one is an investigation of communication's design on the identity of food, in consequence of the advent of industrial production and mass distribution. Two particular contexts were considered: the big retail channel – through the birth and evolution of the supermarket – and the narration concerning the product, carried by packaging design and advertising. From the previous analysis a conclusion was drawn: for several reason, design tends to obfuscate food's places of production. This conclusion brought to the practical phase. I got in contact with a company culturally embedded in a specific territory and I made research about its history and production cycle.

Why

I became fascinated by design and communication in the food field, because I realized design could lead to mystification. It often contributes in building fictitious representations based on stereotypical values –such as nature or family-, hiding the historical and geographical origin of the products. This assumption involves all mass products, but food seems to be particularly affected by this logic. The communication model I developed was aimed to demonstrate that a communication system based on specific and contextualized values and information could be as much commercially effective as “fiction” branding.

Previous version

“The Identity of the Food Product” -my MA graduation project- is divided in two phases. The first one is an investigation of communication's design on the identity of food, in consequence of the advent of industrial production and mass distribution. Two particular contexts were considered: the big retail channel – through the birth and evolution of the supermarket – and the narration concerning the product, carried by packaging design and advertising.

Based on the conclusions drawn from the previous analysis, the second phase of the project -a different communication model- was developed and then applied to a local company called Molino artigianale Dibenedetto, a traditional family-owned mill in Puglia, Italy. The use of new media is a relevant aspect of this model: the company's website tracks the daily life of the producers through a blog-like structure. In addition it includes a photographic documentation of the place of production. A series of booklet printed on flour sacks' paper were also designed, they contain short stories about the mill and its products.