Project Document

Table of Contents

Introduction..............................................................................2

Synopsis.....................................................................................4

Literature Review...................................................................5

Methodology/Process:...........................................................7

The Product............................................................................16

Scope of this design.............................................................26

Conclusion...............................................................................27

Bibliography...........................................................................28

References..............................................................................28

‘Appe midi’: Pickling the cultural and biological diversity of | Padmini Hegde | 201114009 of the Western Ghats in Karnataka

Introduction

Communities express their identities through the

kind of food that is prepared. Indeed, food is one

of the most important cultural markers of identity

in our contemporary societies, and it has

provided a medium for the understanding of

social relations, family and kinship, class and

consumption, gender ideology and cultural

symbolism.1

Appe midi, as it is known in Kannada, literally

means the raw ,aromatic tender mango. It is a

special type of pickling mango that is collected

extensively from the wild, processed as a pickle,

used as a commodity of commerce and is integral

to the food habits of a large number of people in

the Western Ghats region of Karnataka. It is

naturally distributed in the central and southern

parts of the Western Ghats. However its use is

restricted to Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada,

Shimoga and Chikkamagalur districts. No meal is

complete without the extraordinary aroma of the

appe midi pickle in this part of the country. The

community known for preparing the appe midi

pickles is the Havyaka community, found in this

region. There are two main markers which sets

the community apart from the rest of Karnataka;

the language spoken and the food.

1 Sidney W. Mintz and Christine M. Du Bois, ‘The anthropology of food and eating’


Fig 1. Malnad region of karnataka

Hence, food becomes very important to the

community for defining an identity, and even for

distinguishing themselves as unique. However,

with the demand increasing, the once abundant

appe midi mango trees in this region have

become endangered due to neglect and

destruction. Though the natural variation is very

high, only small part of them would be highly

useful as appe varieties. (Not all individuals

would be equally good with respect to aroma,

shape, shelf-life, yield etc). Through repeated

sampling, farmers confirm a few individuals as

best types. There are mother trees (scions are

derived from these mother trees to be used for

grafting). Unfortunately such mother trees (found

in natural areas) are being neglected / over

harvested / unscientifically cut leading to the loss

of valuable material.

The need to raise awareness about this

endangered species has never been more

pressing. Decades ago, pickle making was not

such a hugely commercial exercise. Instead,

there were other cultural connotations, with the

art being handed down from one generation to

the other, and from one family to another.

Although, destruction has been prevalent in the

entire region, a lot of villagers are not even

aware about the endangerment of this variety of

mango. However, the pickle industry has been

affected at large. The consumers of the pickle


constitute largely of people who procure it from

the market. There is a need to sensitize the

consumers regarding the foodways of this region

and the conservation of this rare species.

Synopsis

The title of the project is ‘Appe midi’:

Pickling the cultural and biological diversity

of the Western Ghats in Karnataka

The project explores the possibility of

creating an informed consumer regarding

both the issues of foodways and sustainable

consumption together through the

biography of a rare tender mango, ‘appe

midi’.


The project is also an attempt create

awareness among the primary producers

(wiz. The farmers) regarding the issue of

conservation through communication

design.

The final output is a new kind of pickle

packaging designed for the consumers and

a series of print advertisements designed

for the farmers.

Literature Review

Culture can be identified by the transparent

nature of those everyday elements in it that form

the very backbone of our existence. One example

of this ‘taken for granted’ culture of everyday life

is food, while consumed on a daily basis, often is

considered a mere sustenance. Food is important,


obviously. Writing about something so important

should need no justification.

There are, of course, diverse and good reasons to

write about food, from aesthetic pleasures to

consumer advocacy. Food writing is not just

writing descriptions about food. It is, in fact a

whole lot more than that. Today it comprises

insightful commentaries and memoirs that tell of

personal experiences and anecdotes intertwined

deeply with food, vivid narratives, investigative

pieces etc.

Many books in which food is the central subject

have had an extra ordinary impact on the way we

think about food, and our lives that explore how

our world is changed by the way we grow

distribute, buy and cook food. It is a mainstay of

popular media.

From high-tech kitchen gadgets to magazines to

the Food Network, over the last few decades, we

have witnessed a rise in food-focused

consumption, media, and culture, such that there

has been what we could label a ―food explosion.

It seems as if food, and the discourses

surrounding it, are all over the place from

discussions on food-related forums on the

internet to news stories about urban gardening or

buying organic products at the local farmer‘s

market. There is a heightened awareness of

food’s significance within contemporary society

and culture and, as such, there is a further need

to explore it.

In addition to being an emerging area of study,

there are several major reasons why we can view

food from the perspective of communication

and/or use food as a means for further

understanding communication theories and

practices.[1] Everyone eats and every culture has

its roots in hunting and gathering, growing and

cooking with food. Food and foodways are at the

very heart of human culture. This obsession over

food has had some positive results, such as the


call to eat local, sustainable and humanely raised

food.

Spurlock, in ―Performing and Sustaining (Agri)

Culture and Place: The Cultivation of

Environmental Subjectivity on the Piedmont

Farm Tour also proposes that: Because of their

ability to signify, mediate, contest, and represent

nature and culture, ‘foodways are deeply

rhetorical and per formative’. He also maintains -

Through its absences and presences in everyday

life, food and foodways highlight the moral,

aesthetic, and ethical concerns of a given cultural

milieu. That is, if we view food as a common facet

of our daily lives, then certainly food is also one

of the means by which we create cultures.

In his book, Food is Culture, Massimo Montanari

asserts this point by claiming― Food is culture

when it is produced…when it is prepared…when

it is eaten. That is to say, throughout every step

of our encounters with food, we shape it in one

way or another whether it is through selections of

certain foods versus others, cooking processes,

and/or the ways in which we consume it. Food is

one of the most readily available symbols that we

have at our disposal, which can be viewed from

both the aspects of communication and culture.

In other words, we often use food to

communicate with others as a means of

demonstrating our

personal identity, group affiliation and

disassociation, and other social categories, such

as socioeconomic class.

One of the most common ways that we utilize

food is in the construction of our personal

identities. In other words, we regularly define

“who we are” according to both the foods we eat

and those that we refrain from consuming. We

constantly use food to express not only who we

are but who we wish to be asserting our

membership in certain groups, distancing


ourselves from others. Communities express their

identities through the kind of food that is

prepared. Indeed, food is one of the most

important cultural markers of identity in our

contemporary societies, and it has provided a

medium for the understanding of social relations,

family and kinship, class and consumption,

gender ideology and cultural symbolism.[2] But

the aspect of conservation is usually absent from

all the food-talk that exists in the present

scenario.

Methodology/Process:

The main focus of this study was to examine how

the making and consumption of certain food

items can be viewed as identity markers of a

community. Can culture be preserved? What are

the reasons for destruction or endangerment of

the rare mango species? Why is it important for

people to know where their food comes from?

I will be taking my own community as a prototype

to show how food is an expression of our culture

identity, to argue that regional food culture is

intrinsic to how people from a particular

community connect to their past, live in the

present and imagine a future.

Background:

No meal is complete without the extraordinary

aroma of the appe mango pickle in the Malnad

region of Karnataka. Because of this attachment,

people have developed a special mental faculty to

recognize, typify, cultivate and conserve dozens


of varieties of appe mango in the district. These

varieties are recognized by their aroma and taste

in addition to their colour, shape, size, pulp

content, shelf life, consistency and season of

harvest. One can obtain an appe with an array of

aromas ranging from that of Jeera (Cumin seeds)

to that of camphor. This mango variety has a

history of centuries. Sode king Sadashiva Raya

makes a mention of the appe midi in his 17th

century work. The Gazetteer of 1884 also makes

a note of this variety. Folk tradition is replete

with anecdotes and literature revolving around it.

Ananthabhatta’s appe is perhaps the oldest

variety of appe mango identified and popularized

a century ago in this district. The history dates

back to the early 1900s, when a cultivator from

Balur village by the name Anantha Bhat on the

banks of the river Aghanashini, identified and

popularized a variety which became very famous

quickly. Even today it is one of the leading

varieties, much sought after by the farmers and

the pickling industry. Unfortunately this clone

does not flower in many locations, making it

difficult to popularize. Other varieties include

Malanji appe, Haladota appe, and Karpura appe.

Figure 2. Board displaying varieties of Appe midi at a community nursery in Salkani, Karnataka

The community predominantly known for

preparing the Appe midi pickles is the Havyaka

community, found in the Malnad region of

Karnataka. While the current population of our

community is believed to stand at around 100,000

individuals, there is a clear dearth of

comprehensive anthropological study about the


origin and the subsequent migration of Havyakas.

There are two main markers which sets the

community apart from the rest of Karnataka is

the language spoken and the food. Hence, food

becomes very important to the community for

defining an identity, and even for distinguishing

themselves as unique.

The process:

I have picked on this particular item of food, i.e.,

the pickle, because it is integral to the food

habits of a large number of people from my

community/region. It is popular, consumed as a

regular part of the diet and therefore, taking a

holistic view of food from the process of

production to its final arrival on the table.

Also, preservation is a term that connects three

important aspects of the issue – The people

(community), the pickle and the endangered raw

mango, Appe midi. Since preservation is a part of

the pickle-making process, it becomes an

organizing metaphor. By talking about

preservation of the pickle, indirectly talking

about preserving the endangered raw mango and

preserving a way of life, and therefore, a people,

by trying to get them to preserve a certain aspect

of what makes them, them and not somebody

else.

Thus, there is a logical coherence for taking these

three elements into account. As mentioned

earlier, we are what we eat and hence, if we

conserve what we eat, we conserve what we are.


The flowchart shown above gives out a clear

picture of the process that has been followed.

Foodways, here, is allowing me to bring the two

concepts of consumption and conservation

together because I am relating to people’s

notions of identity and therefore it has more

appeal. It is not just about the pickle, but relating

the story of the pickle to a larger, regional and

social history of the place. And therefore, the

concept of foodways allows extending the

discussion on the pickle to a larger question of

food and identity.

This becomes the whole purpose of sustainable

growth or consumption; that we do not consume

everything or deplete the resources and one eats

sensibly so as to allow successive generations to

be able to eat the same thing. It is not about

asking people to stop consuming the fruit so that

it can be saved from endangerment, but

encouraging them to eat with a certain

sensibility. Because, if the community stops

making the pickle, the mango tree might survive

but the people will be deprived of the pickle that

is so intrinsic to their food plate. Therefore, the

thrust here is to save/preserve all three aspects–

the pickle, the endangered fruit and the culture.

Buying things locally is the whole trend now. So,

the idea is on nurturing local ecologies – The

whole appe midi controversy, is around the way


in which, whether one can sustain the growth of

this fruit without damaging the environment and

to see to it that something so critical to our food

plate and culture is sustained.

Field work:

Except for few newspaper articles, there was not

a lot of information regarding the issue on the

internet, and hence a major part of my project

required me to gather information on the field.

The following methods were employed to perform

the research:

Participant observation: Since I

stayed with the community during my

course of research at the field, I was

able to observe and record my

observations with respect to the

procurement, distribution, etc of the

Appe midi.

Audio/video taped interviews of the

locals, farmers, industrialists and the

Environmentalists involved.

Review of newspaper articles written

about the existing issue, awareness

programs, historical archives(if any)

and the Internet

Field data archived through photo

documentation and by maintaining a

journal

Review statistics involving the

production and consumption of the

mangoes/pickles

The field sites included:

Villages surrounding the river valleys of

Aghanashini, Kali of Uttara Kannada

district, Shimoga districts of Karnataka

where the “appe midi” mangoes are found.


Household pickle makers and small scale

industries in the surroundings areas.

Appemidi Growers’ Organisation

Environmentalists working towards the

conservation of the rare species and

members of the GEF-UNEP Project

“Conservation and Sustainable Use of

Cultivated and Wild Tropical Fruit

Diversity: Promoting Sustainable

Livelihood, Food Security and Ecosystem

Services” where in Local institutions such

as College of Forestry in Sirsi, Life Trust

NGO and EcoWatch are working together

to document traditional knowledge and

build capacities of farmers and local

communities to assess, evaluate and

implement good practices that will increase

the value of tropical fruit tree genetic

resources.

Findings and Discussions:

According to Mr.Shivanand Kalave, a writer and

environmentalist who has been one the pioneers

working towards creating the awareness about

conservation of appemidi species, the Uttara

Kannada district has two main markers of

identity – Meenu (fish) and maavu (mango). He

said that, it is astonishing how powerful a mere

mango can be for a region that there are villages

and also people named after it- Mavinakoppa,

Mavinakurve, Mavinajaddi and Mavinahole are

some examples. Similarly a lot of appe midi

varieties are named after certain families and

villages like Karnakundala, Harnalli Jeerige,

Gundappe, Chouti appe, Kanchappe,

Karpoora appe, Hosagadde appe and Nandagar

appe.

With the assistance of farmers, Kalave had held a

mela(fair) of the appemidi variety back in year


2006 to identify different varieties of appe midi.

The mela helped in identifying 180 varieties of

appemidi. This was a good initiative to identify

the pickling variety because there are a lot of

wild mango varieties found in the region but not

all of them are suitable for making pickles, and

such varieties are invaluable and people are often

ignorant about the same. Similar melas have

been conducted in the region ever since. Mr.

Kalave also mentioned that it is very difficult to

identify the varieties because a plant grown

under a mother tree naturally may not have the

same variety. Informal knowledge of grafting of

these appemidis should be encouraged rather

than the package of practice because only the

traditional method can preserve these varieties,

he opined. (Personal interview, 27 December

2012)

Figure 3. Varieties of wild mango displayed at a recent farmers’ meet in Sirsi

A range of culinary dishes are prepared and

relished every summer with appe midi. Pickling

mango species are highly restricted to river

banks and other swampy areas. It has evolved as

a specialist to these unique habitats. It requires

very high soil moisture conditions for its

flowering and fruit set.

All the wild mango trees of these regions don't

yield appe midi. Local experts differentiate an

appe midi from an ordinary tender wild mango.


Appe midi is quite long - generally 2.5 to 3 inches

- has considerable amount of latex, looks pale

green in colour and will last for years as pickle,

sans any artificial preservative. (Latex is the

transparent thick liquid that oozes out from the

stalk of the tender mango when you cut it off.)

Though most of appe midis are quite long, two to

four inches to an exceptional eight inches, there

are some which are round and hardly 1.5 inches

long. Some are dark green in colour.

One of the specialties of the appe midi pickle is

that there is no use of any artificial preservatives,

not even oil when made at home; the mango latex

itself gives the pickle a shelf life of around four

years. This latex is stored and used as a flavoring

agent in an off-season.

Procurement of these mangoes in villages is

different from that of pickle factories.

Figure 4. Steps showing traditional method of preparing the pickle

In the villages where pickle-making is still a

household practice, during the harvest season, a

specified date (usually the first day of the year in

the Hindu calendar, i.e., the ‘Ugadi’ festival) is

announced for the harvest. By word of mouth,

hundreds of 'regular customers' reach the tree on

the day of harvest. This is a sort of ritual in itself

and very rarely is mangoes bought on any other

day. Depending on the demand, a ration is fixed.


The buyers are not allowed to pluck the mangoes,

but there is a separate group of people who are

specialized for the job. Mangoes, sufficient for

making pickles which could last for about two

years are bought at once because these trees

usually bear fruit once in two years. Although

there are sufficient number of “appe midi” trees

available in most villages, people tend to wait for

“Ananta Bhattana appe”, as it is said to be best

suitable for making pickles.

By harvesting the mangoes at a particular time

every year, the community helps conserve the

biodiversity by guaranteeing the supply. i.e., it is

picked at a particular time, so that once it is

preserved, the time gets extended (the pickle has

a shelf life of about 2-3 years). Therefore, it is not

just the issue of identity, but ‘time’ is crucial too.

And since the demand for the pickle has

increased now, people go for untimely harvest,

which in turn has led to quality deterioration.

Thus, the community has a major role in being

able to conserve the species because of the

cultural connotations linked to it. This could be

compared with the issue of the gene pool of

almost 90 per cent of local rice varieties in the

country in 1995 that had been wiped out since

the Green Revolution in 1965 in West Bengal,

which was saved by Mr. Debal Deb who has been

working for more than 15 years saving the most

uncommon of the common rice. This was made

possible with the help of tribal farmers who still

traditionally grew the local and wild varieties of

rice.

When asked that if these mangoes were sold in

the market commercially instead of distributing

them to the neighboring villages, Ganapati Naik,

farmer and owner of an age old appe midi tree of

the Ananta Bhatta variety said, if taken to the

market a single buyer would take a thousand

mangoes but it would deprive several villagers to

be able to make pickles and he would rather feed

ten families instead of selling the mangoes to a


single person for a higher price at the market.

Only after distributing mangoes to all the families

in their village, is the word spread to the

neighboring villages. Mangoes are distributed for

free in their own village and a ration is fixed for

people coming from other villages.

He also stressed on the fact that it is more of a

tradition to distribute mangoes than it being a

commercial exercise. The mango tree has seen

three generations of their family and they

continue to look after the tree; not for the value

of money but because they are producing

something which is of pride to their family and

village. (Personal interview, 16 January 2013)

According to Dr. Vasudev, Forestry Expert and

local partners of Bioversity international, there

are very few mother trees left and this is one of

the main reasons for the endangerment of the

appe midi variety. Grafting cannot take place if

the mother trees are not available. Most of the

farmers are unaware about identifying appe

midis from other invaluable wild mango varieties.

If the existing mother trees are well taken care

of, grafting can be done, which in turn will

ensure the conservation of the rare mango

species. (Personal interview, 18 January 2013)

Bioversity International, with partners, has a

Tropical Fruit Tree Conservation (TFT) project,

supporting a local group to conserve appe midi

variety and other tropical fruits. According to

Dattatraya Hegde, farmer and member of the TFT

project, today commercial plantation-based

agriculture of the Western Ghats has been

changing and farmers are looking at new cash

crops such as vanilla and agar-wood because of

diminishing returns from traditional crops. One of

the major challenges of fruit tree crops, such as

mango, is the increasing vulnerability to climate

change; especially the flowering and fruit set

stages, which could be very badly affected by off-

season rains. Further, the year-to-year

fluctuations in the market prices for fruits have

made prediction of returns almost impossible.


Farmers are not completely aware of the market

chain; that is the biggest hurdle in marketing

lesser-known local varieties and hence

maintaining the higher on-farm diversity. Also,

knowledge is being lost among the farmers about

locally important varieties. Though arecanut

(betelnut) is his main cash crop, Mr. Dattatreya

started to plant fruit crops a decade and a half

ago. Today he receives some 20% of his family

income by selling appe midi mangoes as well as

grafted cuttings of these diverse varieties. He

also stressed that there is always a need to

diversify fruit crops, to include local varieties of

commercial importance. Since changes in

flowering and fruit-set are becoming more and

more pronounced in the recent 5-6 years, having

multiple varieties is better since they act like

insurance in the changing environment and

contribute to the sustainable food production.

Developing local demand and catering to it is the

key to market the local varieties. (Personal

interview, 14 January 2013)

Decades ago, pickle making was not such a

hugely commercial exercise. Instead, there were

other cultural connotations, with the art being

handed down from one generation to the other,

and from one family to another. Although,

destruction has been prevalent in the entire

region, most house-hold pickle makers have not

been affected by it yet. In fact, a lot of villagers

are not even aware about the endangerment of

this variety of mango.

There are about a dozen big pickle industries in

this region that use anything from 20 to 150

tonnes of tender mangoes every year. M N

Pickles of Shiralakoppa taluk, which uses regular

tender mangoes and not appe midis - is the

highest that uses 150 tonnes and has an

impressive 'direct marketing' network. While all

other pickle companies mainly depend on shops

for marketing, M N Pickles does it through the

agents who do direct marketing by running

'mobile shops'- These are special vans that carry

pickle to different towns and sell it directly. M N


Industry's Mr. Ramchandra Shetty produces a

limited quantity of appe midi pickle commercially

and exports it to several countries. He said he is

unable to cater to even a quarter of the demand

due to lack of availability of the fruit. Pickles used

to be made sufficient for a year’s supply and this

has reduced to 4-5 months now.

The factory procures the appe midis from the

local markets and there is an uncertainty in the

supply. Although there is a lot of demand for it,

due to the lack of consistent availability,

manufacturers depend on other pickles such as

lemon pickles, cut-mango pickles etc. However,

Appe midi pickles are sold at a much higher price

than the other pickle varieties because of their

uniqueness.

During the course of my research, I identified the

various reasons responsible for the

endangerment of the rare mango species and the

steps that have already been taken up by various

organizations to overcome this issue. Although

these initiatives have been quite successful, they

were mainly focused on ‘how’ to conserve-

different grafting methods being taught etc.

These were not focused on ‘why’ one needs to

conserve. Initially the communication was to be

targeted to the consumers of the pickle alone.

But there is a need to include the primary

producers (the farmers) as well because

eventually, they are the ones who can actually

work towards saving the rare species of mango.

And this message is best served if taken from the

producers to the consumers. Hence, expanding

the domain of communication to the primary

producer as well because conservation does not

happen just by creating awareness, one has to

intervene.

The Product


1. Pickle packaging design

While we may not know what television shows or

advertisements consumers are watching, which

or where consumers are strolling in hyperspace,

we do know that within the retail environment

consumers come in contact with the packaged

product and most of the buying decisions are

made at the shelf itself. Food packaging

concentrates on principles associated with

engineering, graphic design and advertising.

Apart from being just an important sales tool and

displaying important and compulsory product

information major function of packaging is the

communication of the product.

There is a reason why the communication aspect

is so important. In case of a modern supermarket,

packages replace people. There is nobody to

introduce you to the various products, nobody to

help you choose what’s right for you, nobody to

explain the benefits of a specific product to guide

you in your purchase. The packaging has to do all

that. Communication in packaging design is

about the capability of a pack to replace a living

salesperson.

The proposed design intends to serve this

purpose and beyond.

This is an item of consumption that needs to be

consumed as well as sustained. Sensitization to

consumption can only be achieved when there is

a retrospective demand which will ensure

conservation. Therefore by matching the

demands of the two issues, the idea was to create

a new kind of pickle packaging design that

involves both.

Present day Appemidi pickle packaging:

Traditionally, the practice is to prepare pickles at

home and store in ceramic or earthenware jars.

Gradually over the years, pickles are

manufactured and commercially marketed as

branded products. In small towns, still, a large

quantity of pickle is sold loose, with no brand

name on it or any information regarding the


producer. The shopkeeper displays various types

of pickles in large glass jars, and weighs out

desired quantity of pickle to his customers.

However, pickles packed in glass bottles, LDPE

pouches and PET jars and under different brand

names have become popular. Most pickles are

packaged generically in a way that there is only

information about the manufacturer and the

brand. Most manufacturers follow the same

standard way of packaging, be it any pickle.

Figure 5. Generic way of packaging that is employed by most manufacturers at present

Even though this pickle is of a rare variety and

exclusive to this part of the country, the way it is

packaged fails to communicate about its regional

identity.

Strategy:

The consumers of this pickle are divided into

three categories.

1. The locals

2. The diasporic kannadigas

3. The non-kannadigas

The locals are the people of the same community

who would buy the pickle directly off the shelf

from the local grocery store. These are regular

buyers who buy the pickle in larger quantities

since it is a part of their daily diet. The diaspora

here refers to people of the same community

living in the other parts of the country or abroad;

people who would buy the pickle at specific

boutique stores or emporiums. The non-

kannadigas would include people who do not

belong to this part of the country.


Understanding the tastes of these three

categories, the packaging of the pickle had to be

designed respectively.

Since a major part of the target consumers

belong to Karnataka, I have employed a bilingual

packaging design where the ‘text’ is in both

English and Kannada. The compulsory product

information has been written in English and the

tagline is bilingual. (Kannada and English) The

tagline here sends out a message to conserve the

rare tender mango. I started with writing

advertising slogans for the product in both

English and Kannada. After discussing with Prof.

Devy, out of the ten slogans that I had written in

each of the languages, five were finalized.

The following are some of the ideas

conceptualized for the pickle packaging design.

Idea 1:

Most of the pickle industries in the region use

pearl-pet jars to package pickles. In this concept,

I have tried to redesign the existing style of

packaging by incorporating certain new elements

such as a label on the cap of the bottle and a

hang-tag.

Since it is tender mango pickle, I have used

mango flowers to illustrate the background. I


have used a shade of green that is similar to that

of the pickle mango. Green, in food packaging is

also used to show the quality of a product, how

good it is for us or for our environment.

Along with the label, there will be a hang-tag

booklet attached to the bottle which would

provide little-known facts about Appe midi,

describing the uniqueness of the fruit. These tags

can be printed in different sizes and shapes and

on different card thicknesses depending on the

size of the bottle and can be easily attached with

different types of cotton, string or plastic

fasteners.

Idea 2: In this design I have used simple and

minimalistic graphics using elegant and simple

typefaces upon large white space or canvas to

give the design a distinctive appeal. The large

white canvas is balanced with the maroon color

of the pickle

appearing through the glass at the base and top

of the glass jar.


The USP of this design is that the top portion of

the label which serves as a seal can a peeled off,

and it has text written inside. This would contain

the tagline/ message that the product has to

convey. Often, with simple packaging, the

consumer fails to read the information provided

at the back of the bottle. If there is a lot of text

given on the label, it often goes unnoticed by the

consumer. This design would ensure that the

information is read as one peels off the seal,

while generating curiosity.

The image shows hand-drawn illustrations of the

above mentioned idea in a step-wise sequence.

Why didn’t it work?

Although it was not a complex design, the

graphics had to be printed on both sides of the

label. I found out from the printers that the

procedure was a little elaborate and they would

agree to do it if it were a bulk order. Since I had


to get only a single label printed, execution of the

idea failed.

However, I used the Autodesk 3ds Max to make

3D models of the same concept to give a realistic

look to it as shown.

Final idea:

The second category of consumers, i.e. the

diaspora would buy the packaging along with the

pickle. One of the important factors of the

proposed design was to bring in the regional

identity of the product in the packaging. This

would target both the diaspora and the non-

kannadigas. Hence, keeping the cultural aspect

of the product intact, the idea was to use a visual

language that the target audience can relate and

understand.


The graphics have been hand drawn and further

edited using Adobe Illustrator. The illustrations

used contain various elements which are intrinsic

to the Malnad region of Karnataka such as

arecanut trees, yakshagana, clouds, rains, hills,

rivulets, flowering and fruiting of mango trees,

brick roof houses etc. The package is meant to

be reminiscent of the region for the diasporic

consumer; evoke nostalgia and memories related

to the region. When one looks at the graphics, he

can immediately connect to it. Also, for the non-

kannadiga, this illustration is effective since it

helps create a regional identity of the place and

the consumer would buy it as a collectible.


The graphics was initially printed on a label stuck

on a glass jar as shown below.

During my previous presentation, I was asked to

utilize sustainable and organic material available

in the region for packaging, so that it goes with

the whole idea of sustainable consumption. Pickle

packaging or any kind of preserve packaging has

a different kind of identity, because today, even

though these products are industrially produced,

they still retain the sense of home; a cottage

industry flavor to it.

Considering all of the above factors, I redesigned

the packaging keeping the same graphics. Since,

the idea on sustainable consumption, it needed to

have an ‘organic’ feel to it. I used material such

as banana bark and recycled paper to make boxes

which would contain the jar of pickle.

Figure 6. The final prototype


As shown in the above image, the package design

consists of three components- the outer box, the

pickle jar and the booklet.

The box is made up of recycled paper and dried

banana bark. The jar used is in the shape of a

‘bharani’ (ceramic jars used to store pickle

traditionally). Pickle has a home quality attached

to it and therefore, its packaging needs to be sort

of different from other packaged food items. The

jar used, gives a home feel to the packaging.

Since this design is targeted towards the non-

kannadiga consumers as well, the booklet

provides a story about appe midi including

information about its history and how important

it is to the community.

Figure 7. Layout of the booklet

4. Print ads/Posters:

Since the target audience constituted villagers,

print media, radio or television were the three

modes through which the intended message

could have been conveyed effectively.

The message could have been well put across

through an ad campaign which could include a

short ad film along with the print ads. However, if

I had to make use of the harvesting of the tender

mangoes in the video, it would not have been

possible because the harvest usually occurs

during the last week of March or first week of


April and I could not have travelled during the

time as per project timeline.

If an advertisement is printed on paper, be it

newspapers, magazines booklets, flyers or

anything else that would be considered a portable

printed medium, then it comes under the banner

of print advertising. However, I have created a

series of three ads in poster format which can

take shape into other forms of print ads as well. I

have used the regional language, kannada in all

the ads suitable for the target audience. These

posters could be put up at various locations in the

villages where people gather.

The posters are an added value to the existing

communication strategies that have been adopted

by conservationists or other groups working

towards creating awareness regarding the issue

of conservation. These posters focus on ‘why’ the

community needs to conserve the species rather

than ‘how’.

The idea was to alert people from seeing the

flavors of their childhood disappear, to help them

save for their future generations a piece of the

culture and history of which they are a part.

Poster 1: This poster shows a withering mango

tree which forms family tree, with the older

generations at the root and the tree withers as

one moves towards the newer generations at the

top.

The 'appe midi' is like a family heirloom, being

passed on from generations. However, with it

getting endangered, it may not be available to the

future generations. This is shown through the

mango tree, where the older members of the

family are the greener, healthier part of the tree

at the bottom and the younger ones are at the top

where the tree is withering away.


Here, the withering mango tree is considered as

a metaphor to talk about the fast dying appe midi

species; to show that something that has always

been there may not be available for the future

generations.

Poster 2: In this poster, using typography, the

names of villages that are named after 'mango'

(Like Mavinakoppa, Mavinakurve, Mavinajaddi

etc; 'maavu' meaning mango) form the shape of a

mango.

There are a number of villages in the region

which are associated with the word 'mango'


showing that the fruit has always been of high

importance to the people of the region. And since

the mango is fast-dying, these villages will soon

lose their identity; in the sense that, the names of

these villages will no longer hold any value.

Poster 3: This poster shows a mother and a son,

where a mother and her child are looking at a

picture of jar of 'appe midi' pickle hung on the

wall. The picture has a garland over it, just like

how garlands are hung over pictures of deceased

people in the family.

Here, I'm trying to spread the message in a

rather humorous way by saying that a time might

arrive in the future, where our future generations

will only get to see the pictures of this fruit and

not be able to get a taste of it. This has been

exaggerated with the garland hung over the

picture of the mango.

Poster 4: This poster constitutes of a mango tree

in the centre surrounded by people, as though

they are protecting the tree; who in turn are

surrounded by mango trees and the circle goes

on till it fades away.


The slogan in kannada literally means, ‘What we

save, saves us’.

This message is visually represented in the poster

showing people or the community saving the

mango tree and the mango tree saving their

culture.

Scope of this design

Today’s consumer does not just buy from a store;

a lot of knowledge is gathered from the web as

well. Of course, there are consumers who would

never go to a website but there is a niche

audience who actually do. Although, packaging

serves to communicate the message to the

consumer who buys directly from the shelf, to

reach a wider audience, a website can be of an

added value. This website could contain stories

regarding other such food products.

As mentioned earlier, to reach a larger array of

audience, along with the print ads, a short ad film

could be created to create awareness among the

farmers.


Conclusion

The project aimed to create a food supply chain

that is culturally, environmentally and socially

sustainable, involving both the producer and the

consumer, conveying the same message in

different contexts. It is important for

farmers/producers and consumers to work

together in order to defend our agricultural

heritage.

Over the last few decades, there is a heightened

awareness of food’s significance within

contemporary society and culture and as such,

there is a further need to explore it. It is not

about just the pickle, but relating the story of the

pickle to the larger regional and social history of

the place; thus allowing the discussion of the

pickle to a larger question of food and identity.


The project thus intended to approach it through

the conceptual category of food ways on one

hand and sustainable consumption on the other

hand through the biography of a rare tender

mango, appe midi.

With this project, I tried to smuggle out a

symbolic tradition, one they is not about just

keeping alive among the community, but among

people throughout the world. This continuation of

our food heritage helps us maintain a sense of

identity. This pickle is a symbol of a historic,

storied culture and its fight to stay intact. By

keeping it alive, we preserve a culture.

Bibliography

[1] Sidney W. Mintz and Christine M. Du

Bois, ‘The anthropology of food and eating’

[2] Charles Camp, ‘Foodways in everyday

life’


References

Anitha Pailoor (2007,May). ‘Save the

appemidi’ InfoChange News &Features.

Retrieved August 16, 2012 from

http://infochangeindia.org/other/features/sa

ve-the-appemidi.html

Sandhya Hegde Almane ( 2012, August 20).

‘Of Mango-scented Malnad air…’ Deccan

Herald. Retrieved August 20,2012 from

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/1565

04/banner-300x250.swf

Atula (2011, March). ‘Rare Pickle Mango

Variety on Path of Resurrection’. Retrieved

August 18, 2012 from

http://indiasendangered.com/rare-pickle-

mango-variety-on-path-of-resurrection/

Design issues, Vol 26, No. 2, spring 2010,

Anthorp. ‘Design’s role in sustainable

consumption’

(2013, Mar 2). ‘About Packaging

Sense’ .Retrieved April 10, 2013 from

http://packagingsense.com/?page_id=2


http://packagingsense.com/?page_id=2

http://indiasendangered.com/rare-pickle-mango-variety-on-path-of-resurrection/

http://indiasendangered.com/rare-pickle-mango-variety-on-path-of-resurrection/

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/156504/banner-300x250.swf

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/156504/banner-300x250.swf

http://infochangeindia.org/other/features/save-the-appemidi.html

http://infochangeindia.org/other/features/save-the-appemidi.html

Documents

Project Document