Have you ever thought about creating colors with food? There’s a revolution happening in the food industry. More and more people eat pure and ‘honest’ food. Brigit Louw, one of the Motiflow Designers, is fascinated about this movement. She’s exploring ways of using pure food in her work..
The food future
You might have heard about the theme food future," says Brigit. “It has been an inspiration for my newest collection of pattern designs. I completely immersed myself into this future. What does food mean to people? What’s important and what are the trends? And.. how can I use it in my designs?”
Origin
"During my investigation I noticed the importance of the origin of the food. People want to know how food is produced and under what circumstances. It’s a trend that’s been going on for some time, and it becomes more and more visible. A lot of restaurants, for example, buy meat from local farmers only. You see this change in supermarkets as well, and as a consequence it’s also reflected on your plate.” We can’t deny. I mean, how many of you already found Jerusalem artichoke or parsnip on your plate?
Curcuma
Beetroot
Cacao
The purity of color
But, now let’s talk about making designs! How do you translate this trend into creating dessins? ‘I brainstormed long and hard about all these trends and concepts. Not only the food ingredients, but also the design itself should be ‘pure’. By using pure colors, and a clean, simple design. The purity of color could be achieved by using natural colour pigments. So, why not use natural color pigments gained from food?”
A fun process
So Brigit started cooking different dishes and ingredients for a long, long time. “It’s a fun and exciting process. Some stews needed a lot of time. It makes you feel like a researcher. After simmering the foods long enough, I strained everything until only the concentrated extract was left. Then I laid cotton cloths in the extracts, and waited until they absorbed the color. Sometimes the colors were SO intense and sometimes after boiling and absorbing there wasn't much left.. That’s exactly what makes this whole process so interesting and fun!”
Tone-on-tone colors
So, what did you do to implement these colors in your designs? “I scanned all the (dried) cloths to my computer. From there I started creating new designs, inspired by the colors ánd the origin of the food. And so the Pure Food Colors Collection started to rise… The colors that originated from some food products were so incredibly surprising! Together all different colors created an amazing color palette. The tones match so, so good!”
From canary yellow curcuma to deep purple blue berry. From dark green sea weed to a warm red color coming from unions… a scala of colors appeared! And there’s still so much to explore.. it makes you look at food in a whole different way!
About Brigit
Brigit Louw loves graphic design, pattern design, interior design ánd food styling.
All over her website, her Instagram, and through her patterns you’ll find nature based elements. The tones, the structure, the simplicity.. we’re a big fan!