September 2007 Archives
What is the best CG representation of delicious food? They know at Pixar.
How does a chef think? How does (s)he strive towards perfection and to serve perfect food? The mind and soul of a chef reveals a lot of the psychological and emotional processes involved. Micheal Ruhlman takes you on this journey towards the dark hearts of the profession.
Perception through the senses is the way people experience. Besides experiencing through their eyes, ears and skin, their tongue and nose determine the taste of food. But what constitutes their taste? And how can we influence people's taste? This book provides some answers.
The visual design of food (called 'food styling') is a trade in itself. Food styling for photography, TV and movies uses the characterics each medium to appetize people. Tagline: "Media food styling from classically trained chefs". Watch their videos for inspiration.
Ryan Freitas (Adaptive Path) presented at UX Week 2007. "For those who manage creative organizations, the professional kitchen can provide inspiration for how to balance important principles like consistency, creative freedom and effective problem solving, all under stressful conditions. Ryan Freitas discusses these and other parallels between the worlds of the cook and the designer." - His slides are available for download.
Not only the perspective of the designer but also the perspective of the user is important for experience design. In some cases, it is not as easy as it seems. "How to eat sushi and sushi bar etiquette... that's what this document is about. Its target audience are non-Japanese people who enjoy sushi but aren't familiar with the customs and traditions that make for an outstanding dining experience. If you enjoy sushi, or if you think you'd like to give sushi a try, this document is for you." - By Eugene Ciurana.
"Observation of eating and drinking behaviour and of the emotional reactions triggered by such behaviour provides unique possibilities to help the food and drink industry design products and experiences that fit special situations and evoke hedonistic experiences.", says the European Centre for the Experience Economy on the project 'Restaurant of the Future'.
Dutch food designer Marije Vogelzang describes on her blog 'Proef ('Taste') Amsterdam' how she integrates food, design and art. For her, food is a material to design with and less to eat. Including to make it fun for children. And ... she's does not cook, but designs.
Cook and interaction designer Ryan Freitas wrote an article on what he learned in a restaurant kitchen as a metaphor for Adaptive Path's design studio. (Ambidextrous Magazine special issue on Food from Stanford Institute of Design).
In the family of 'Crunch', Web 2.0 trendwatcher M. Arrington ('TechCrunch') started the blog CrunchFood on "(...) a subject still near and dear to the hearts of geeks".
Mike Kuniavsky (of Adaptive Path fame) published a post on wine from an informational perspective.
Just found the Y! epicenter on Food. Very general, but still useful...
