Appetite

From restaurants and supermarket aisles to the corner store, there is an inherent relationship between graphic design and food. “Appetite,” an innovative exhibition at 41 Cooper Gallery curated by the Herb Lubalin Study Center at The Cooper Union, explores the role and influence of design in the food industry. Design has the power to alter our experience and influence our perception of food. By charting the current landscape of where and how we encounter food-related design in New York City, “Appetite” illustrates the ubiquitous presence of the designer in food packaging, store and restaurant branding, cookbooks, magazines, menus and other objects—both historic and contemporary.

While “Appetite” includes important works by AvroKO, Matteo Bologna, Edenspiekermann AG, Louise Fili, Derick Holt, Sterling Brand’s Debbie Millman, and Douglas Riccardi, the exhibition also acknowledges the subtle and unexpected ways designers influence our lives and daily relationship with food such as the design of the waiter’s check, the typeface on the grocery store’s price labels, the Nutrition Facts label, and hand-painted signs on bodegas, to name a few. “Appetite” investigates the designer’s process and motivation, and will leave the viewer contemplating the influence of graphic design on food and if design creates appetite?