Digital Document
This first foray into visual design focuses on text-based content. This week, we integrate visual elements to achieve a weekly learning objective: Evaluate the five principles of washoku for your own daily culinary habit and dining practices.
Photography by Yoko Ichikawa, Kaiseki at Matsuzayaka Honten, near Hakone + calligraphy
Digital Media:
Five Principles of Washoku
The graphic of kanji characters of each concept: five, colors, flavors, ways, senses, and verses attempted to add visual texture and form to each concept.
Learning Objective
This digital document presents 5 key principles of washoku, initiating the following course learning outcome:
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Create and practice consumption rituals of breakfast and daily bento following 5 key principles of washoku (traditional Japanese cuisine).
Within the first module, it further aligns with the following two weekly learning outcomes:
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Explain Japanese nutritional philosophy and how its applied to food consumption, choice of ingredients, food preparation and consumption rituals.
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Evaluate 5 principles of washoku for their own daily culinary and dining practices.
This handout enables the student to see how the five principles form a cohesive whole picture of washoku's concept of nutritional balance as it ties of aesthetic and spiritual harmony. These concepts further support current wellness practices such as mindfulness and gratitude in the ritual of eating. Attention to variety in color and texture enables nutritional variety. Diversity of flavors and cooking methods lead to satiation and moderation through satisfying the palette and senses.
Writing and converting kanji into clean vector graphics was the most challenging aspect of creating this info graphic. The layout came naturally out of a pentagram, as I imagined the kanji for number five in the center.
Handout
Digital Media #2 Checklist
Summary/comments: This infographic illustrates the foundational principles of washoku. I integrated the graphic elements of kanji characters to illustrate these concepts and add visual texture and contrast to the clean sans serif type. I included a reverse out graphic for screen since I learned as a graphic designer that a dark background with white text is easier to read for presentations. I did the opposite for the handout to save ink in the event the student wanted to print it out and customize the principles for their own approach to washoku. I sought to consider Universal Design by enabling personalization of the experience and decided on a Creative Commons license that allows for modification with acknowledgement for educational purposes only.
Andoh, Elizabeth. Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen. Ten Speed Press, 2005.