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Carlita Bryant

MFA in Graphic Design - 3 Yr Path — Graduate Graphic Design
Course:
Graduate Thesis
Faculty:
Monica Schlaug
Term:
2026 Spring

Culigraphics

Cooking as Framework for Typographic Expression and Community-Building

 

Cooking is one of the most ephemeral forms of art. Yet it happens to be the one that gives the longest-lasting impressions. It prepares the necessary ingredients for us to live, and is a labor of love that brings us together and invites new memories. My thesis, Culigraphics, explores the graphic design process through the lens of a kitchen. Slicing and recombination of food become typographic tools, informing grid patterns and modularity in layout and letterforms. Table conversations and food sharing become frameworks for creative collaboration, strengthening interpersonal relationships. Short for "culinary graphics," the project draws inspiration from the world of cooking to expand the designers' methodology to be more hands-on and collaborative. It culminates in three pieces that function as nourishment to the creative soul: a building blocks game that prompts conversations, a digital app centering the cutting board for slicing and assembling your own type, and a publication covering the symbiotic relationship between graphic design, food, and society.

Culigraphics is an invitation to designers to embrace their material experiences and the people they live them with. Stay hungry, eat with others, and always play with your food.

Process:

Multi-disciplinary research spanning academic articles, interviews, a participatory research experiment, culinary techniques, and food studies bridges the gap between sociological and design approaches. Iterative making through consistent print prototyping, laser-cutting, and UX prototyping through AI platforms provided me with a blend of analog and digital skills to show the importance of utilizing both in the design process. Thesis Book can be found in the project link.

Learning Outcomes:

This project taught me a balance in academic versus creative rigor, and the importance of communication and translation of ideas at different levels. Not only did I create design deliverables, but I also operationalized my thinking into a variety of forms with intentional functions for participants to gain insight from. I gained an appreciation for AI as a design tool for bringing my own designs to life, showing a deeper understanding of the technology to enhance designed material rather than replace creatives in general.

Project Website:
https://carlitabryant.com/culigraphics-1
Tags:
App Design,
Branding,
Packaging,
Publication Design,
Research-Based Design
I take an interdisciplinary approach to the graphic design process using cooking as a typographic tool and framework for community-building. More specifically, I investigated slicing and recombination of ingredients to inform modularity in rational letterforms and typographic expression. Slicing directions became patterns, and the shapes they created became additional layers to to expand uniqueness of letterforms. From this slicing logic, I developed three distinct typefaces; sumo, portobello, and cremini. Each of them took on their own personalities based on their slicing patterns and shapes, showing the flexibility of this method. Whether it was oranges or mushrooms, each food constructed its own letterforms.
Chopping Blocks is a game that combines the physical and metaphorical dimensions of cooking as a design framework through play. The game pieces are derived from the same shapes used to build the Cremini typeface, and the packaging draws inspiration from kitchen toolkits and materials. Participants build images using a constrained set of modular shapes in response to prompt cards, while conversation-based prompts build interpersonal relationships alongside the making. The game can be played in any creative setting: studios, workshops, or just among friends, and with proper production, it could reach designers well beyond an academic context.
The Chopping Block app is similar to the game, but translates the physicality of slicing into a digital experience.
Rather than replacing the tactile act of cutting, it extends it.
Participants drag their finger across the screen to slice shapes, the same way you would on a cutting board. The Chop pages encourage digital shape cutting, the Prep page lets participants customize their grid and build letterforms using shapes they cut themselves. I also added a social Feed that creates space for discussion on process and experimentation. Once fully developed and deployed, the app could be downloaded and used by anyone, with the Feed imagining a design community that extends far beyond a single room.
BITES is where the social dimension of the thesis fully materializes. It's a publication covering trends at the intersection of graphic design, food, and society. Structured like a tasting menu, each section lives on its own page of varying size and material. And because it's designed to circulate, it has a natural life beyond the thesis — shared in person, online, and across design communities. Structured like a tasting menu, each section lives on its own page of varying size and material. The binding is intentionally impermanent, giving readers full agency over how they navigate and share the information. The physical object itself is a modularity argument. Pages can be passed around, reordered, handed to someone else at the table. And because it's designed to circulate, it has a natural life beyond the thesis. It can be shared in person, online, and across design communities.