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Renee Walker, a San Francisco graphic designer, won the "Rethink the Food Label" contest that Quality of Life told you about last month.
Walker's winning design "is intended to bring the ingredients to the forefront of the label as the most important element," she explained on the competition website. To do so, she used colorful geometric blocks to represent relative ingredient proportions, as well as thumbs up and thumbs down symbols.
The all-star panel of judges included Michael Pollan, UC Berkeley professor and author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," and UCSF child obesity expert Dr. Robert Lustig.
“Walker’s design is dramatic, intriguing and holds great promise,’’ Pollan told The New York Times. “I liked being able to see the visual breakdown of foods, although I wonder how her design would work with more complicated products, like Lucky Charms, say, or a PowerBar. Even so, it’s a step in the right direction. What I’d like to see next is some sort of color coding for the food groups and some attempt to show the degree of processing of various foods."
"Eating doesn’t have to be complicated; figuring out what’s in your food shouldn’t be either,” he added.
There's still time to vote for the people's choice award winner. Go to the Rethink the Food Label website and cast your ballot.
The competition is sponsored by News21, a journalism education initiative, and by GOOD Magazine.
© The Bay Citizen, 2012
