The North-east is often described as Scotland’s Larder, famous for such offerings as Aberdeen Angus Beef and freshly caught seafood.
And now, design students at Gray’s School of Art are out to cement that reputation and give it a modern twist by creating new concepts for a food or culinary experience in Aberdeen as part of a university project.
#GraniteCrumbs will see more than 130 students from across a range of disciplines including 3D Design, Communication Design and Fashion and Textiles, work together in groups to develop ideas which establish Aberdeen as a ‘Food City’.
This could range from ways of preparing, packaging, transporting, consuming or capturing food and leftovers.
Product design lecturer and researcher at Gray’s, Sue Fairburn, said: “Dundee is a UNESCO city of design, Edinburgh is a UNESCO city of literature and Glasgow is a UNESCO city of music.
“With the range of amazing produce on our doorstep and some really exciting start up and food innovation companies appearing in the city, we felt that this project could raise the possibility of Aberdeen working towards becoming a UNESCO city of gastronomy.
“The project is about exploring our relationship with food and experience of food and how to reconceive what food means to people in the North East.”
3D design course leader, Daniel Sutherland, added: “The students have free reign to interpret the brief any way they want. It is about the experience of consuming food, as well as the type of food in question – the way it is packaged, branded or shipped.
“We are asking the students to break out of their normal habits with regard to food and approach it in a completely new way. I’m excited to see what they come up with.”
Sue said: “Gray’s has always had students who have worked with food in the past but the big difference with this project is to see what happens when you mix the different design disciplines together and to see what the students will bring out in each other.”
The project will launch on Friday, October 2, and will feature a range of guest speakers including Dr Phil Lyon from Queen Margaret University (QMU) who will discuss the social history of food; RGU researcher Leigh Ann Hepburn who will talk about the dynamics of collaboration; and local crowd funding success story Foodstory.
The students will then have three weeks to come up with their ideas, before presenting them to a final expert judging panel on October 23, which will include Elizabeth Mathie of the Grampian Food Forum; fashion designer Iona Crawford; and Dr Phil Lyon, as well as representatives from Robert Gordon University (RGU).