Client, Year
Baltimore Museum of Industry, 2023
Services
Logo
Exhibition
Interpretive Graphics
Photography
Vivian Marie Doering
Food for Thought
Honoring the heroism of food service workers
Food for Thought celebrates the food service workers who prepare and distribute over 88,000 meals each day to ensure Baltimore City Public School (BCPS) students don’t go hungry. Even when school buildings closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, these essential workers continued to feed city students and their families.
Upon entering the exhibit space, cafeteria furniture, sourced from BCPS’s surplus supply, immediately positions visitors within a nostalgic frame of reference. The melamine chairs were handpicked to create the color palette; elsewhere, a traditional folding table fills in as a text panel.
The exhibit’s purpose was to increase the visibility of the hard work and hard workers that too often remain out of sight. In each portrait, the subject is made to look and feel like a superhero, while accompanying audio allows every participant to share their story. As these interviews play in the space, the gallery lighting “spotlights” the speaker’s portrait.
The data graphics accompanying each portrait are drawn from the chair-based color palette. Topics covered include school nutrition, students’ favorite school meals, and food insecurity in Baltimore.
The visual system exudes an “Educational Bauhaus” style, thanks to its dedication to geometric forms, simplified color palette, and function-as-design sensibility.
An interactive area encourages both children and adults to engage with the subject of school meals and nutrition. Two tables introduce tactile elements typically found in primary schools: a chalkboard table asks visitors to “Draw your favorite school food memory,” while a felt-covered table prompts them to “Create a balanced meal on the plate.”
At a third table, people are asked to write thank-you notes to food service workers; the resulting messages are displayed nearby.
By making the personal feel heroic, and the heroic feel personal, we remind each visitor that individual efforts can positively impact us all.
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©2023 Ashton Design
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©2023 Ashton Design