In the California College of the Arts September e-letter, I read about MFA in Design grad Renee Walker who won first place in ReThink the Food Label, a competition co-sponsored by Good and Berkeley's News21 fellowship. As part of her graduate work, Walker had already been exploring the twinned issues of obesity and the presentation of nutritional information and her proposed label design developed out of this research and a collaboration with a nutritionist.
Unlike the existing black and white FDA labels, which require line-by-line parsing of the information, Walker's labels combine itemized information with a color-based system that represents the food's contents at-a-glance. The label for an apple includes a single red box, where as a package of macaroni and cheese breaks down into several boxes of varying ingredients.
In a post on her blog from the end of July, written after contest winners were revealed, Walker considers and responds to the reactions her label generated which adds a certain richness to this story. Often you'll read about a designer's process and final product, but not as frequently do you find a post-facto analysis in which the designer revisits and defends a creation once it's "out there."
ADDITIONAL LINKS: Browse the runners-up; read a NYT story on the labels (which generated some comments Walker takes issue to on her blog).
Image courtesy of News21