Method Pliant
Design, Food and Management: a perspective
Newsroom
The popularity of TV shows, books and articles on the topic has made food design more fashionable than ever. What does this mean for Method Pliant?
All our discourses on food are not only related to the mere consumption, movements or production of edible goods. In the time of celebrity chefs and countless Netflix shows about restaurateurs or gourmands, food is always much more than just a nutrient. It is both a medium used to trigger new experiences or introduce new concepts.
The idea of food as a metaphor is also well known to Italian designers. First published in 1981, “Da cosa nasce cosa” (“One thing leads to another”) is one of the most important books by Bruno Munari, the Milanese artist and polymath whose creative production spanned six decades, moving from Futurism paintings to children books. In “Da cosa nasce cosa”, Munari analysed the difference between an artist and a designer, focusing on the methodologies used by the latter in his daily work. At one point in the book, he uses the process of making a “risotto” as a metaphor for the design process, carefully comparing each of the steps made by a chef to those executed by a designer.
Da cosa nasce cosa, Bruno Munari. Publiched by Editori Laterza.
With this brilliant metaphor, Munari summarised the “state of the art” of his time on the topic. As we were closing this issue of Method Pliant, reading “Da cosa nasce cosa” left us wonder: what does it mean to make a “risotto” today? What is the relationship between food and design today? How can this “duet” innovate our society? What is the role of management and new technologies in this process? How is this topic going to evolve in the next years?
In this issue we talked with a few experts from different fields, aiming to answer part of these questions.
May 2017