Eating designer Marije Vogelzang, who spoke at WDCD2013, is among Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business 2015. Vogelzang is selected ‘for reimagining what and how we eat – and training other designers to do the same’.
Fast Company’s list of the most influential creatives around the world features scientists, business leaders, designers, politicians, and artists who are changing our world for the better. This year’s list is topped by professor Charles Artnzen at Arizona State University, who found a way to produce a serum against Ebola using tobacco plants.
Marije Vogelzang, is praised for her work, that ‘gets people thinking about what they put into their bodies.’ As an example the magazine mentions her recent project RICE LIFE for Tokyo department store Seibu where she asked shoppers to share memories associated with rice. Other work mentioned includes new restaurant ideas for Lego’s theme parks, and product concepts for Nestlé. Also Vogelzang’s work with hospitals is recalled, where she improved patient nutrition through food presentation.
But Vogelzang’s selection has much to do with her entrance in the world of design education, with the start, last year of the world’s first bachelor’s degree program in food design at the Design Academy, called Food Non Food. Here she teaches student to use ‘shape and colour and texture’, and also to understand ‘how the food cycle works, from farmers to the food industry to biotechnology to psychology.’
Last month the whole Food Non Food department was transferred to the Salone del Mobile in Milan, where students worked on their projects on site on a ‘fascinating and kind of scary subject: SHIT!’ Their work was exhibited under the title EAT SHIT.