#LunchWell
Inspired by the interconnected relationship between food, health and the environment, Canadian International School of Hong Kong (CDNIS) and Maxim’s Caterers partner with Grassroots Initiatives to launch #LunchWell, an educational campaign for delicious, nutritious and sustainable school lunches. From introducing immunity-boosting plant ingredients to establishing zero-waste kitchen practices to appropriate portioning, #LunchWell strives to change the culture around school lunch on a fundamental level so that positive impact accumulates from every meal. By setting a new standard for the way students dine at school, the hope is that students will make informed, deliberate food habits that start at school and continue for life.
As the creative director of the campaign, I oversaw and created branding, posters and social media materials. 18 A2-sized posters, 15+ social media posts/templates, logos and stickers were created in one month from start to finish; the work was shared among five interns: myself (concept, design, illustrations), Kate Lee (communications, design), Madi Wong (illustrations), Eugenia Chow (communications) and Chandni Sacheti (communications).
(Created with Procreate and Illustrator)
Select concepts:
Comparing environmental footprints of common milks
Drawing connections between ingredients and potential dishes
Visualising food waste
Highlighting investment choices
Poster series:
I was actively involved in the creation of the first nine posters. The rest are ordered by decreasing involvement where I mainly provided concept/colour guidance for the last few.
Scope
Campaign goals:
Cultivate sustainable food habits
Challenge the misconception that cafeteria food and plant-based cuisine must inevitably compromise flavour, appeal or nutrition
Prove that healthy and sustainable food can be profitable
Transform the school cafeteria into fertile ground for scaling innovative and effective solutions to influence the food that people consume and their future spending habits
Foster interest in food, health, and the environment
Combat modern day disconnect between food and produce
Encourage respectful attitudes towards food
Primary Audience: CDNIS high school students of ages 11-18
Secondary Audience: Schools, caterers and other institutions
Competition: Existing visual material around the school, such as:
Branding & Identity
Key themes: Future of food, plant-based diet, sustainable
From the first column, the “fork-tulip” was our chosen icon to be further developed. We decided it best captured ur campaign as the blooming, plant-based experiment, springing up towards a hopeful future of food. After testing the iterations, we found that the icon began to lose meaning when small, especially when as the corner logo of our posters because line work was no longer noticeable. This led us to switch gears and adopt mushrooms as our icon for its natural properties that aligned with our campaign. Mushrooms are environmentally friendly, can be repurposed into bio-materials and degrade plastic waste, is immunity-boosting and maintains its health in bacteria environments, an apt parallel to our gut health depending on bacteria as well. What followed was an attempt to introduce lesser known varieties such bamboo shoot, chanterelles and enoki (column 4), and eventually a simplified “fork-mushroom”, a slight compromise on the “future of food” message but overall a much more striking and versatile visual.
Other Applications
Campaign stickers for laptops, notebooks, water bottles, and any medium that serves as walking advertising and can easily be used as food packaging stickers as well:
Campaign Stickers
Lunch bowl packaging opportunities to create synergistic reinforcement between poster content and the food served. This particular mockup demonstrates the “Wellness Plate” poster and the possibility of creating a Chinese counterpart to target local schools and cafeteria venues:
The Wellness Plate (English)
The Wellness Plate (Chinese)
The Wellness Plate poster
Food packaging to distinguish #LunchWell menu items from regular cafeteria menu items:
Sandwich/wraps packaging