It’s no secret that we have become a nation of foodies. Enticing new food and drink experiences litter the pages of our lifestyle magazines, making consumers ever more demanding. Despite being famed for transportation and product design, Seymourpowell’s designers often work with a different raw material – food. Whether creating the future of beer, chocolate, coffee, orange juice or crackers, it’s the same team of talented designers turning their hand to the future of food who were, the day before, working on the design of a TV or a train.

1. COOKING
UP A STORM

2. Crawford Market in Mumbai
Cultural observation in glob al food centres
Cooking up a storm...
Using design in food Innovation
JENNA CUSWORTH-BOLGER - Head of User ResearchSeymourpowell
It’s no secret that we have
become a nation of foodies.
Enticing new food and drink
experiences litter the pages
of our lifestyle magazines,
making consumers ever
more demanding.
Brands are increasingly eager to stay ahead of
shifting tastes with new product launches, but
it can be a struggle as gearing up production
can take months, often years, of planning.
We’ve observed manufacturers increasingly
looking beyond their development kitchens
and marketing departments for inspiration and turning to design.
Confidential. © Seymour Powell Limited, 2012. All rights reserved.
Despite being famed for transportation and
product design, Seymourpowell’s designers
often work with a different raw material –
food. Whether creating the future of beer,
chocolate, coffee, orange juice or crackers,
it’s the same team of talented designers
turning their hand to the future of food who
were, the day before, working on the design
of a TV or a train.

3. 1: Gathering the
right ingredients
The first phase of the design process
- foresight - is particularly important
in food and drink innovation.
This ensures new ideas are
centred on needs, are future
focused and globally relevant.
There are three strands of activity typically needed:
Trend Research
The adage goes ‘you can’t research the
future’. However we believe that by observing
patterns and sensing the cultural atmosphere
it is possible to shine a light on the future. This
is vital because food and drink manufacturers
can take years to get from the point of
concept to a functioning production line, and
the capital expenditure of a new line needs a
compelling business case.
We must therefore be future focused with our
ideas – designing concepts for five to seven
years and not just next year’s big bet. If we
only ever design for the short term, the mid
and long term propositions never happen as
their groundwork has to begin yesterday. It is
vital to work from the future backwards.
To inspire, test and validate our trend
research we regularly conduct interviews
with industry thought leaders - our constantly
growing network of international food writers,
development chefs, food designers and food
futurologists provide us with a rich source of
thought provoking information.
Immersions with Leading
Edge Consumers
William Gibson famously quipped ‘The future
is here, it’s just not evenly distributed’ and this
is something we live by when we approach
user research in the context of food and drink
innovation.
So much market research focuses only on
talking to a brand’s ‘typical’ consumer but
this will only ever tell you about the present
and the past. We believe in talking to the
world’s early adopters - people living more
‘progressive’ lifestyles. This isn’t just people
with an edgy haircut – it’s those leading a
lifestyle and living a mindset that sets them
apart from the norm - demonstrating needs
and desires that are yet to come into the
mainstream.
We charm our way into their neighbourhoods,
their homes, their kitchens and bedrooms –
spending time immersing ourselves in their
lives - temporarily displacing ourselves into
the future. Our design trained researchers use
the principles of ethnography; seeing people
Confidential. © Seymour Powell Limited, 2012. All rights reserved.
Urban farmers in san francisco
An immersion with leading edge consumers
in context and understanding as much from
observation as from listening.
Over the last year we’ve travelled to the four
corners of the globe and met with paleodieters, urban farmers, supper club hosts and
experimental chefs - delighting in the stories
they’ve shared about their world of food.
Cultural Observation
Often the brands we work for need future
products that appeal in many different
markets. This means understanding the food
culture in different regions and what’s shaping
local changes in behaviour.
When our researchers travel to different cities
they do so with open eyes and mouths. They
head to the latest pop-up restaurants and
shops, explore the local markets and stores
and spot food trends as they happen on the
ground.
We always travel with an empty suitcase
that’s then filled with product and packaging
examples to inspire our designers.

4. Factory line tour
Creative workshops
Distillation
Understanding R&D opportunity on the ground
Inspiring hundreds of new ideas
Understanding where priorities lie
2: Using the
Right Tools
3:Turning
up the Heat
4: Let them
Eat Cake!
Technology Landscape Scoping
Powerful Creative Events
Building an Innovation Roadmap
We need to root innovation in the realities of
a business’s technological and commercial
capabilities. This means deeply understanding
the technology limitations of current
production lines as well as the technology
possibilities on the horizon in other businesses
or in development in the research labs of the
world’s universities.
Seymourpowell’s creative events are a melting
pot where all the project ingredients are fused
together to form ideas. We bring to life the
insights from our trends and user research
in the form of Innovation Territories, with
inspiring video, photographs and product
examples.
Whilst this volume of ideas is fantastic, the
raw thinking is made more useful once the
essence is distilled and aligned with R&D and
brand ambitions.
Our designers work with R&D within and
beyond the category to map the landscape
of available production processes, ingredients
and packaging possibilities.
These spaces of rich opportunity are the
inspiration for groups of designers to work
with the client’s global teams to create
compelling new ideas. Each idea is captured
beautifully in words and sketches.
The last creative event for a leading beverage
and snack client resulted in over 200
individual product ideas.
The next vital step is to explore which ideas
will deliver profit and growth, in turn helping
businesses understand which technologies
and capital -expenditure to back. Our team
bring the ideas to life, both visually and
tangibly through models, for qualitative and
quantitative consumer research.
Working this way allows businesses to
develop concepts rooted in trend and insight
work and then validate them, with a sense of
likely returns, so they can move forward and
invest with confidence.
Every food and drink business relies on
innovation to drive growth but creating truly
breakthrough innovation relies on an inspired
look into the future and a hefty helping of
creativity from a skilled design team.
Confidential. © Seymour Powell Limited, 2012. All rights reserved.