Set in context. Food Design Thinking for a movie set.

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited by Liwan Design Studio in Doha, Qatar, to participate in the upcoming Design in Film Festival. As part of my involvement in this project, I was also invited to lead a five day workshop for designers and creative practitioners connected to Liwan. I was genuinely thrilled by this opportunity and very happy to take part in the workshop.

I therefore designed a five day workshop (11-15 December 2025) that allowed participants to experience a bespoke Food Design Thinking process. The brief given to participants was to design an object from a specific scene in a movie. Participants were provided with the script for that scene. They had time to carefully study it, and then used the Food Design Thinking methods I introduced to design one of the objects mentioned in the scene.

The objects designed during the workshop will be exhibited as part of the Design in Film Festival in January 2026 in Doha. During the festival, the exhibition will showcase these objects. Only at that moment will participants be able to watch the full film for which they designed a scene and, more specifically, a set. In this way, participants were able to experience something very close to what a set designer experiences. They created a tangible interpretation of the vision of the director and the screenwriter, working from the script rather than from the finished film.

I will now describe the structure of the bespoke Food Design Thinking process used during the workshop.

The Food Design Thinking process I designed for this workshop is based on the principles and overall structure of my established Food Design Thinking framework. However, as is the case with many of my projects, I created a bespoke version of the process so that it aligned precisely with the project brief, the length of the workshop, and the background of the participants I was working with. For this workshop, I designed ten Food Design Thinking methods specifically for this context. I often describe myself as a design designer, meaning that I design Design processes. This is the core of my practice. I design ways to enable designers to strengthen and structure their creative process towards specific goals, which in this case are the embedded Food Design Thinking principles.

The first method is called Define Your Inspiration. In this method, participants reflected on the people and things that inspire them and why, as well as the social and environmental sustainability issues they wanted to design for. I shared my sustainability cards with them, which they browsed and used to broaden their perspective on the different sustainability challenges one could address through Design. From these, they selected the issue they wanted to design for. As part of this first method, participants also defined their values and answered the question, "what kind of impact do I want to have in the world?" They were asked to think as human beings rather than as designers. This is always the first method in my process. We intentionally step back, broaden our horizons, and reflect on what makes us who we are. This awareness is fundamental in being deliberate about what we bring into a project, as human beings and, of course, as designers.

The second method is called Analysis of Scene. Here, participants used a series of prompts to analyse the scene described in the script. Based on this analysis, they decided which object they wanted to design.

The third method is System Map for Objects. The worksheet for this method suggested what participants should research in order to draw a system map for the type of object they were designing, taking into account the specific geographic and cultural context of the scene. The fourth method is System Map for Recipes. This method provided prompts to research the recipe described in the scene. For this project, participants were asked to work on a recipe that appeared in the script. In Food Design Thinking projects where participants are not working with recipes, this method is not used or is replaced by another.

The fifth method is called Starchat. In this method, we used a series of images and printed cards that triggered metaphorical thinking. Through a specific discussion technique known as the STAR technique, participants finalised their message. The goal of this method is to define the message of the design. The message is one of the two components of anything we design. It is the non tangible component. What we want the object to say, the memories we want it to evoke, what we want to inspire or, in some cases, teach. The other component is the language of the design outcome, which includes everything tangible and sensory, anything experienced through the five senses.

The sixth method is called Systemic What If. This method consists of guided conversations around different "what if" questions. These conversations allowed participants to reflect on different layers of their system of intervention, integrate their research, and refine the visualisation of their system maps.

The seventh method was our first ideation method, a free ideation session. The eighth method is a co design ideation method called Brainwriting, where all team members contributed to each other’s idea generation process.

In addition to these methods, we visited several museums and a food market. These visits allowed participants to engage with different aspects of cultural heritage and food heritage, which were then translated into the objects they designed. The method used during these visits is called A World of Insights. This method enabled participants to collect and reflect on insights gathered during the visit and observations outside the studio.

The final ideation method was designed specifically for this brief. It included different worksheets depending on whether participants were designing vessels, utensils, equipment, textiles, appliances, or other objects that might be found on the film set described in the scene. The prompts in these worksheets supported designers in adding depth and detail to every aspect of their project.

The final step of the process is not a method, but a way of ensuring coherence. The final concept needed to respond to the sustainability issue identified in the first method and to the impact participants wanted to have in the world. It needed to fit within the two system maps they created, convey the design message they defined, resonate with insights gathered through research and visits, and integrate all the layers of thinking developed throughout the process.

For each Food Design Thinking method, I designed one or more dedicated worksheets. These worksheets were created so that they could be taped to one another as each method was added to the process. By the end of the workshop, all the worksheets combined into one large poster, almost the size of a blanket. Visualising the creative process in this way is important for several reasons. First, visualising and writing by hand, with pen and paper, is a powerful thinking tool, even more so today, when this practice is becoming increasingly rare within the design process. The worksheets therefore intentionally support this kind of embodied thinking. Second, visualising everything, from research insights to sketches to moments of reflection, creates an accessible way to talk about the project, to explain it, and to show it to others. The worksheets become a valuable collaboration tool, allowing others to quickly grasp the project by looking at the poster while it is being discussed. Finally, the worksheets function as a repository of information. Everything related to the process is contained within them. At any moment during the project, participants could return to a worksheet and be reminded of what was written, thought, and discussed. Even after the process was completed, the poster could be opened again, allowing participants to easily revisit and reflect on the entire journey.

If you're curious about Food Design Thinking visit this page, and if you want to discuss possibilities to bring Food Design Thinking to your company or project get in touch and I'll be happy to have a chat :)