13: No directive: Art-tastic!

Since Häagen-Dazs is such a luxury, I tried to think of other things I do that I consider luxuries and I thought immediately about art museums.It’s a luxury for me to be able to even go to an art museum, so when I get to one, I really take my time and appreciate the beauty of the art and the luxury of being able to see such beautiful things.

Häagen-Dazs also seems to have this appreciation for art, since they made an app that plays a concerto while you wait for your ice cream to be the perfect temperature to eat it. What would it look like if Häagen-Dazs took their love of the finer things into an art museum?

Well, I’d like to think it would look like me walking around eating ice cream while looking at art, but since museums tend to frown upon food and things that can spill near priceless art, I don’t think that is a possibility. What is a possibility though is Häagen-Dazs printing facts about fine art on the sides of their containers with a pictures of the artwork. This way, I can indulge in the luxury of ice cream at home (where no one cares if I spill something) and still feel the luxury of seeing beautiful art.

I found a few facts that I found interesting about different artists and their work. I also included the image above the fact, because I think that instead of just printing a fun fact on the carton, that Häagen-Dazs should print the art too, so it takes up most of the container. The ice cream container will become the work of art.

In 1961 Henri Matisse’s painting Le Bateau was put the right way up after hanging upside-down for 46 days without anyone noticing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

During his entire life, Vincent Van Gogh sold just one painting, Red Vineyard at Arles.

When Auguste Rodin exhibited his first important work, The Bronze Period, in 1878 it was so realistic that people thought he had sacrificed a live model inside the cast.

There is a portrait or a silhouette of Dali in every one of his paintings. (note, I couldn’t find Dali in this painting, please tell me if you find him!)

12: Mind Mapping: Pizza parties for grown-ups

I started my mind map with luxury and somehow got to pizza parties. I was thinking about the pizza parties that little kids have, with cheese and pepperoni pizza, chips and Cheetos, and if you’re lucky, there was ice cream! It probably came in those little individual cups with the wooden spoon that scared 9 year old Sam (tongue splinters were a real fear I had and still have.)

Häagen-Dazs isn’t for little kids though, it’s a luxury ice cream for adults. What if adults still had pizza parties? With those nice pizzas with whole tomato slices on them and mozzarella chunks and basil leaves everywhere, and pita chips with hummus and one of those cheese balls covered in nuts, and to finish the night, those small cups of Häagen-Dazs. Everyone could choose their own flavor and be happy and full of delicious food! Instead of wearing play clothes that you could get covered in pizza grease, the adults would wear their party dresses and suits, hair styled and sparkly make-up everywhere!

I made an invitation for my little fake party. I made sure to make it as fancy as the event will be, but also fun, because who isn’t going to have fun eating pizza and ice cream!

11: Mind mapping: Putting that poetry class to good use

This semester, I needed to take a 300-level English class. I chose poetry, despite having never written poetry. I didn’t even write angst, 16 year old poetry. But I’ve gotten out of my comfort zone and have been doing pretty well in the class. The professor gives us a general word to work off of, like place, object or persona and we write a poem that week based on that word.

With my mind mapping, I started with ice cream, got to BDSM, then jewelry, then over to other luxury items. I decided to take the word luxury and pretend that that was my word for the week in my poetry class. My mind map can be seen in post number 10.

Luxury
I may not be able
to afford a fur coat
like the one Margot wore
in that Wes Anderson film.

But I have a fur stole
my mother wore in college
that’s just as soft
as it was in 1975.

I can’t afford a car
not even a used Ford
as old as me with
three broken handles
and a dent in the hood.

But I have a pink bike
my roommate let me borrow
that gets me around town
faster than walking.

I can’t afford name-brand food
whenever I go to the store
but I still make baked chicken
with pasta and two sides,

because it’s not about
what you can buy.
Feeling like a million bucks
comes from the little things.

The time taken to find
what makes you feel special
and like the queen you are.
Even if those things are
pints of ice cream and
thrift store high heels.

10: Mind mapping: Snow daze

Every winter, it snows in Virginia. And every year, people freak out that it is snowing in Virginia. And Every year, people rush to the store to buy all of the milk and bread they can. As though they will be snowed in for days on end, unable to leave and as though that in the event of being unable to leave, that the would die quickest without milk and bread.

I’ve lived in Virginia my whole life and this has never made sense to me. Even when I need to go to the store before a snow store, I buy foods I like to eat and maybe a few extra things that can be eaten and kept at room temperature, in case of of power outages or being snowed in. My mother takes the approach that if she were snowed in, she would get bored and want to bake something delicious, so she buys cake mixes and the ingredients needed for them. Screw buying bread and milk, she wants cake and brownies!

Mind map number 1

During my mind mapping, I followed a rabbit hole that lead me to snow days and shopping lists. After I finished my mind map, I looked back through it and added notes about things that inspired me in a different color pen. (Sadly my scanner didn’t want to scan colors today.)

I considered how funny I think it is that people buy boring foods, when my plan for the VCU snow day is a trip to the local ABC store. Why not buy all the fabulous things you want and just have a great few days of lazing around your house eating fabulous foods? I decided to make a little comic about this.

 

9: What I know to be true: Kids don’t like food they can’t pronounce.

I know that I am good with children. I spent all four years in high school volunteering at the local elementary school twice a week, every week, with fifth graders. During my junior year, I did an internship with a first grade class. Until then, I thought I would become an elementary school teacher! I realized that I like playing with kids more than I like teaching them though. The past 2 summers in college, I have worked in a preschool program in Henrico County.

Häagen-Dazs though, is not an ice cream for children. They are billed straight to adults. Their commercials are not fun and loving, happy families eating ice cream. They are adults, sometimes yelling in Italian. Even though this is Häagen-Dazs’ target audience, I think it would be interesting for them to do a complete 180 and market to kids. What would Häagen-Dazs marketing to kids look like?

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First of all, they would need to have flavors for children. While chocolate and vanilla are kids’ flavors, these aren’t the flavors that get kids excited. Kids like flavors that are bright and colorful! Flavors with bits of other candies in them! While the Häagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream is delicious, it’s not even enough chocolate candy for my tastes.

A few flavors for kids that I thought of are cotton candy and bubble gum, but those don’t seem to fit the Häagen-Dazs model of indulgent, top shelf ice cream. I believe that if Häagen-Dazs were to start marketing to children, they would have fruit flavors like grape, apple and banana. Maybe some peanut butter thrown in there for kicks and giggles. Flavors that seem awesome and fancy to kids, but to the adults buying them seem like a healthier, but still nicer alternative to the cotton candy ice cream their child is asking for. This wouldn’t be the ice cream that the average, dirt eating kid would eat. This is the ice cream for the kid that leaves school with the nanny to go to his Italian lessons, then to a fencing class before going home and eating dinner at the table with his parents.

I drew up a couple of the flavors I mentioned, giving them a more fun vibe than the normal, simplistic Häagen-Dazs containers, but still keeping with their design quality.

Apple Slice, for those parents who are reluctant to give their children ice cream in the first place. These are the parents that get their kids carrots at McDonalds.

PB+J! Every kid knows this flavor combination, except all those kids with peanut allergies nowadays.

Probably more accurately named “Purple flavored,” grape would have that taste of purple lolli-pops.

 

8: What I know to be true: Because you can’t serve ice cream in a plastic bag

I know that some things just taste better when they are in better containers. Kids know this better than anyone else. Draw a happy face on their sandwich bag, and that sandwich tastes better. It doesn’t matter that it’s the same PB&J that they ate yesterday. Adults know this a little bit differently. Adults need their food to be plated nicely at restaurants, served in a nice glass and with a cloth napkin. There’s a reason that cute lunch bags are designed for adults and it’s that if you see something happier than a brown paper bag before you eat, the food just tastes better.

This logic also applies to ice cream. I can eat ice cream out of the container all day, and believe me, I would, but scooping it into perfect circles and putting the ice cream in a nice container just makes the whole experience of eating ice cream more indulgent. It becomes something more than just the ice cream, just like the happy face on the plastic baggie makes that kinda stale sandwich better.

One artist that also knows this is known as D Laferriere on flickr has drawn on his kids sandwich bags for last 5 years. If he didn’t also think it makes a difference in his children’s day, I doubt he would have continued to do it. Eating should be an experience, and the experience doesn’t have to cost a lot.

D Laferriere

D Laferriere

D Laferriere

Here is a link to the flickr page of the artist. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlaferriere/sets/72157605053629580/with/8408510880/#

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To connect this idea to Häagen-Dazs, I thought of how ice cream tastes better in nicer containers. A milkshake in a tall glass with ribbed edges just tastes better than when it is served in the metal cup that it is mixed in.  Ice cream tastes better in glass containers. Maybe it’s some scientific reaction that happens, keeping the ice cream colder or creating a magical chemical reaction with the ingredients, but no matter the reason, ice cream tastes better in a fancy container.

Since Häagen-Dazs readily gives other advice to their consumers, why not give advice as to what container they should eat out of? There is an app (for Apple products only) that is a 2 minute concerto. Set your ice cream out and by the end of the concerto it’ll be the perfect temperature. Keep the ice cream at 0 degrees in your freezer to ensure that it is the best it can be. They could even have a product extension, like the app, of cups and bowls for your Häagen-Dazs ice cream. I drew up a few, albeit cartoony, containers that Häagen-Dazs ice cream could be served in.

Chocolate in green glass! Ice cream just tastes better in a glass with ruffled edges.

Fancy like a nice glass of wine! But way more delicious.