Bronze Social Design · 2025
Food Into Opportunities Recipe Book
by Udem Universidad de Monterrey
- A' Design Award 2025 Bronze Winner in Social Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Universidad de Monterrey
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 35,173
- Verification code DDE221E779 · Verify this award
About Food Into Opportunities Recipe Book
Food Into Opportunities is a recipe book created to help households reduce food waste. The book is addressed to women aged 30 to 60. A hybrid format combines the printed book with digital content shared on social media platforms. The first edition focuses on fruits and vegetables and explains how to use them at different stages of ripeness. Storage advice and seasonal recipes support the full use of each ingredient. The standard letter size, hardcover binding and sewn pages suit frequent use in the kitchen.
Food Into Opportunities Recipe Book by the design team represents a thoughtfully conceived editorial project that positions culinary knowledge as a vehicle for social transformation and community empowerment, drawing upon design traditions that honor both functionality and symbolic resonance in the service of accessibility and education. The three-volume structure suggests a systematic approach to organizing content across thematic territories—"DE LA TIERRA" (from the earth), "DEL CAMPO" (from the field), and "DE LA GRANJA" (from the farm)—establishing a pedagogical framework that moves from fundamental ingredients through agricultural contexts to livestock and animal products, creating a comprehensive culinary education resource grounded in agricultural and ecological awareness. The chromatic choices demonstrate sophisticated restraint and semantic intentionality: the verdant chartreuse evokes living plants and vegetable matter appropriate to earth-based ingredients, the neutral cream suggests grain, flour, and foundational staples from cultivated fields, while the warm terracotta rose resonates with animal products and the clay vessels traditionally used for dairy and preservation. The debossed typography creates tactile engagement that rewards physical handling while maintaining visual clarity through generous scale and spacing, the sans-serif letterforms projecting contemporary accessibility rather than exclusivity or pretension. The white subway tile backdrop situates the volumes within domestic kitchen contexts, grounding the work in everyday lived experience rather than abstract or rarefied culinary spheres, while the tile's geometric grid provides orderly structure suggesting systematic knowledge organization and methodical approach. The compositional rhythm of three volumes in cascading diagonal arrangement creates visual interest through repetition with variation, the slight angular displacement preventing static symmetry while maintaining overall balance and stability. The matte textured surfaces and quality binding suggest durability and repeated use, positioning these volumes as working kitchen tools rather than decorative coffee table objects, an approach that honors the dignity of functional design in service of genuine utility. The restrained material palette and clean geometric forms align with design movements emphasizing transparency, honesty, and democratic access to knowledge, rejecting ornamental excess in favor of clear communication and inclusive invitation. This trilogy appears to embody values of food sovereignty, agricultural literacy, culinary empowerment, and the democratization of cooking knowledge as tools for individual and community flourishing. One might consider how these volumes function as bridges between agricultural producers and home cooks, between traditional foodways and contemporary practice, and between individual nourishment and collective food security, inviting reflection on how design choices in educational materials can either reinforce or dismantle barriers to knowledge access and skill development.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- This project introduces a practical recipe book specifically designed for women aged 30 to 60. It features a hybrid format, combining a physical book with digital content across social media platforms. The first edition focuses on fruits and vegetables, offering guidance on their use at different stages of ripeness.
It includes storage tips and recipes to maximize their potential, encouraging sustainable habits in everyday life. - Dimensions & Packaging
- The constant interiors of 180 color pages, printed on a 140 gram sofa with 4x4 inks, ensuring a High graphic quality and a professional finish. The binding will be by sewing with hotmelt, providing robustness and ease of use, essential characteristics for a recipe book that will be used frequently in the kitchen.
- Tags
- Food, approval, recycling, hunger, reuse, nutrition, cooking, fruits, proteins, cereals, vegetables
- Production Technology
- The book design was developed with a strategic approach to optimize the format and the production costs, without compromising its functionality or quality. You choose a size
standard letter (21.5 x 28 cm) to minimize material waste during production printing, thus reducing environmental impact and allowing more economical production and sustainable.
The book will be hardcover with glossy lamination on the front and back covers, which ensures an attractive visual presentation and long-lasting protection. - Design Challenge
- Research question
How can graphic design encourage families to minimize food waste
in their homes?
General Objective
Develop a tool and communication strategy that raises awareness about the
food waste to women.
Specific Objectives
Report on food waste generated in homes.
Promote responsible food consumption.
Optimize the use of food. - Project Duration
- The brand seeks to establish a deep connection with food from its origin, whether in the land, the field or products of animal origin. Its objective is to raise awareness about the complete production process of each food, from its cultivation or breeding to its arrival at home, encouraging more conscious preparation and storage and responsible. The journey of food does not end on the plate; comprises an entire journey which, when understood, invites us to value and make the most of each ingredient, promoting more sustainable habits in our daily cooking.
- Operation Flow
- Various applications were developed to promote the brand and expand the reach of the project. As a complement to the book, a collection of exclusive dishes with designs was created.
that highlight the logo, icons and illustrative elements. These plates are one of the gifts to Kickstarter backers. Designed as iconic pieces of the brand, the plates They can be used both to serve the recipes in the book and to decorate. - Research
- This project has as its centerpiece a recipe book, designed as a tool practice to inform and train women between 30 and 60 years old about the impact of waste of food at home. Responding to the digital information saturation you experience
this group, the book takes advantage of the preference for physical formats, offering an experience functional and tactile in the kitchen. At the same time, complement this proposal with content digital in social networks, creating a balance between the physical and the digital.
The first edition of the book focuses on fruits and vegetables, addressing how to use them according to their stages of ripening, offering advice on efficient storage and providing
Practical recipes organized by seasons of the year. Through this approach, we seek to maximize the use of food, reduce waste and promote creativity in the kitchen, turning ingredients that are normally thrown away in delicious and easy to prepare dishes. - Inspiration
- How can graphic design inspire families to reduce food waste in their homes?
To create a tool and communication strategy that raises awareness about food waste among women.
Educate households about the extent of food waste they generate.
Promote responsible and sustainable food consumption practices.
Encourage optimal utilization of food to minimize waste. - Image Credits
- Eugenia Martínez-Abrego Sáenz
María Andrade Padilla
Paulina Gonzalez Gracia
Valeria Marín Guzmán - Patents
- Eugenia Martínez-Abrego Sáenz
María Andrade Padilla
Paulina Gonzalez Gracia
Valeria Marín Guzmán