1. Changes the food system
2. Empowers the international food design community
3. Drives food design research pathways
4. Supports funding impactful projects
5. Creates links between food and design knowledge
6. Disseminates food design opportunities
7. Feeds food innovation challenges
8. Engages communities to find solutions
9. Breaks the conventional boundaries

FORK was founded by a team of visionaries and dreamers, who believe that only through collaborative networks we can make the difference.

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We meet the human as a complete person, considering food choices one of the aspects of life that can more impact a user’s experience. New collective opportunities in the agri-food systems must be created: it is necessary to build concrete bridges between competencies and knowledge, research and practices, funds and ideas.

It’s important for a design approach to start the

development process by imagining how users might experience a feature. But it’s also critical that design does what we can to find any gaps once we get to the execution stage.

Promote a transdisciplinary and collaborative approach to food that helps researchers and professionals to create new knowledge and to design tools and strategies for future generations.
Through the activation of networks and partnerships, FORK aims to bring Academia to the market and vice versa.
FORK feeds scientific research and finds the most interesting trends in the design and food sector. FORK supports and provides opportunities for learning, sharing moments such as conferences and seminars, and educational pathways such as training sessions to share and discuss with best specialists, both challenges and opportunities, of future and current food scenarios.

Food innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship are key to the food industry of today and tomorrow.

FORK identifies and promotes partnerships between the va- rious stakeholders, but also pushes food designers to take concrete actions.

FORK works with manufacturers, farmers, R&D and retail de- partments to address the challenges businesses face today and implement better solutions.

FORK wants to create new connections between producers, companies, innovators, industry, designers, governments and policymakers, to build a more sustainable food system as pro- posed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) laun- ched by the UN in 2015.

FORK promotes collaboration with all sectors of Gastronomy: from Culinary Art, to Hospitality, from Sustainable Tourism to Collective Catering, to name a few.
Fork organization aspires to build synergies and partnerships between Gastronomy and Design, two fields of study with many values in common. These include respect for the consumer and responsibility for the users in making their choices.
Building the conditions for them to work together means defining the future of food, which includes sustainability, proximity, seasonality and non-waste of resources. Chefs and cooks are often recognized as celebrities (often televised). Their role has increased, and they have the power to influence both consumers and food producers. It is necessary to design new gastronomic scenarios, attentive to tradition and aimed at innovation.

FORK wants to enhance a global community of designers from different fields of expertise, and they want to make an impact today. Through digital media, FORK organization can reach a wide audience, even transversely away from food design, and accelerate the implementation of innovative design projects.
It is also up to designers’ work literacy with the consumer and companies to understand why it is essential to develop products, services, and experiences with diverse teams which work together.

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Mariana Eidler is a researcher around Food Design and the relationship between Gastronomy and Design, Mariana is a PhD student in Food Design at the University of Lisbon. Graduated in Design at ELISAVA and in Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona, Master in Pedagogical Orientation at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona. Master in Identity and Photography at Parsons School of Design in NY and Master in Communication. Art director, food-designer, teacher and researcher, she worked in NY with Milton Glaser and in Barcelona she founded tactica.barcelona, to provide global service to companies in the world of design. She works in Food-Design, Graphic Design and transdisciplinar design creating projects that are social and sustainable. She has obtained the Generalitat de Catalunya grant for the development of creativity abroad and her work has been recognized with the New York Festival Award, Laus Awards, International Design Awards and Clap Platinum Award. In the academic field she collaborates closely with the Elisava design school in Barcelona where, due to her organizational and team building skills, she has been responsible for the global project area of the design degree for the last 6 years. She is currently the director of the international programs Study Abroad and Home Abroad. She is also a teacher and responsible for the Food Design final projects of the Design degree.

Antonio Barrera. Former Creative Director of Telefónica and Grupo Zed. In the 1990s, he founded pioneering software design companies like Atlántida. In the 1920s, strategic design and technology companies such as Weareplay and Mobee Factory. He has worked for Sony Music, Doctors Without Borders, Endesa, Paramount Channel, Universal Music, BBVA, Bankinter, Mapfre, Renfe, Spanair, Camper, Carrefour, and Visa. In 2019, he created the Food Design Festival, one of the first festivals dedicated to design and Food. In 2021, he founded Singular Foods, a research & food design lab to promote food innovation and products and services for the value chain of the food system and an incubator of new experiences around the new universal language of Food.

Ricardo Bonacho has a degree in Communication Design, a post-graduate course in Communication Design and New Media, and a PhD in Design with a speciality in Food Design “Design Bites – The Practice of Design in Culinary Arts”. He is a professor and member of the Scientific and Executive Commission of the Masters in “Innovation in Science and Culinary Arts” and “Food Design” at the Estoril Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotel Studies in Portugal. He teaches Design Applied to Culinary and Restoration and Creativity and Food Design in several courses in Portugal. He is a collaborating researcher at the Center for Research in Architecture, Urbanism and Design at the Lisbon School of Architecture at the Universidade de Lisboa and consulting member of several publications related to Food Design and Food. In the context of non-academic professional activity, he develops activity as a designer in communication design, being responsible for several projects in graphic design, packaging, editorial, institutional communication, interaction design and exhibitions. He collaborates in the management, organization, and promotion of fine dining events in the catering industry in Portugal.

Pedro Alvarez is co-founder and CEO of ivoro, food innovation hub based in Madrid, where he advises food companies and startups to accelerate innovation, become more competitive and grow with profitability and sustainability. Pedro is a venture builder and early stage investor in agrifood, innovative CPG and Foodtech in Spain, Israel and USA, and also shares deal flow with different investment and corporate venturing funds interested in these areas. He is part of the #EUeic jury team for the EIC Accelerator Pilot acceleration program in Brussels and its ambassador for Spain. Mentor for eit food, CSIC and UAM’s Emprende program. Drives the Spanish and European #Foodtech ecosystem with various initiatives.gy companies such as Weareplay and Mobee Factory. He has worked for Sony Music, Doctors Without Borders, Endesa, Paramount Channel, Universal Music, BBVA, Bankinter, Mapfre, Renfe, Spanair, Camper, Carrefour, and Visa. In 2019, he created the Food Design Festival, one of the first festivals dedicated to design and Food. In 2021, he founded Singular Foods, a research & food design lab to promote food innovation and products and services for the value chain of the food system and an incubator of new experiences around the new universal language of Food.

Sonia Massari has more than 20 years of experience as a researcher, lecturer, consultant, and designer in the fields of sustainability education, food design and innovative agri-food systems. She holds a Ph.D. in Food Experience Design from the Engineering Department at the University of Florence, Italy. For 12 years, she was the Academic Director of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Food Studies programs in Rome, and she designed and coordinated more than 50 academic programs and 150 educational activities on food and sustainability for prestigious international institutes. She teaches at several universities around Europe. She is a faculty member at the Scuola Politecnica Design – Food Design Master Program, she teaches at ISIA Design School (graduate course: “Sociology of Changes. Design for the emergent food scenarios”) and at Roma Tre University – graduate course: “Sustainability Design Thinking”.She is a senior consultant at the Barilla Foundation and a Academic Director at the Future Food Academy. She received the International Women Innovation Award “Tecno-visionaria” (2012), the NAFSA TLS Knowledge Community’s Innovative Research in International Education Award (2014), and the Food Studies ASFS Pedagogy Award (2020). She is a board member of the Association for the Study of Food and Society and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal Food Design.