Milk, mylk or drink: Do packaging cues affect consumers’ understanding of plant-based products?

The market growth of plant-based alternatives to animal food products pushes agencies around the world to discuss specific regulations regarding their communication, terminology, and packaging design. We created and tested 18 packages of plant-based milk and plant-based chicken meat varying the “animalness” of terminology, container, image,...

The effect of meat-shaming on meat eaters’ emotions and intentions to adapt behavior

Eating meat can have detrimental effects on the environment, animal welfare, and a person’s health. However, consumers are often reluctant to reduce their meat consumption and public information-based awareness campaigns show little effect. As an alternative, some vegan activists and pressure groups employ emotion-based campaigns using meat...

An exploratory study using graphic design to communicate consumer benefits on food packaging

Commercial food packages may contain multiple messages. Packaging designers try to integrate all messages into a coherent design. Designers may use text, images or stylistic features, but these mediums may differ in their suitability to communicate specific product benefits. To evaluate the usefulness and effectiveness of these three mediums,...

Seasonality as a consideration, inspiration and aspiration in food design

While over the last century food systems have become more controlled, standard-ized and globalized, the plants and animals that form the basis of our food production still show seasonal fluctuation. The growth and reproductive cycles of these organisms follow seasonal weather patterns, including changes in rainfall, light exposure and...

Conveying information through food packaging: A literature review comparing legislation with consumer perception

Although governments have implemented regulations to inform consumers on important product properties and protect consumers from deceptive information, empirical research on how consumers perceive, interpret and experience food packages have shown frequently that consumers may be misled by how information is presented and packages are...

Designing product metaphor to promote sustainable behaviour: A proposed method

Within the scope of Design for Sustainable Behaviour, the connection between behavioural change strategies and design idea generation has received limited attention. This paper highlights metaphorical thinking in product design to stimulate sustainable behaviour. In particular, the current study proposes a metaphor-based design method to guide...

What design can bring to the food industry

Even though designers are specifically trained to create and build new products, their contribution to innovation in the food industry is relatively small. The industry seems unfamiliar with the ways in which designers operate and may be unaware of the added value they may provide. Therefore, this article identifies the potential roles that...

Consumer-product attachment: Measurement and design implications

Due to differences in the attachment consumers experience towards the durable products they own, they hang on to certain products whereas they easily dispose of others. From the viewpoint of sustainability, it may be worthwhile to lengthen the life span of many durable consumer products. Hence, there is a challenge for designers to strengthen...