Purpose
With the lockdown and travelling restrictions around the globe since march 2020, it has been getting difficult to stay connected with the outside world and carry on with the normal pace of life. It became extremely important to stay safe and the only way was to stay at home as much as possible. For the otherwise ʻoutgoersʼ and social butterflies, virtual platforms for meetings proved to be a blessing where they could sit in the comfort of their homes and still be connected to their networks. Virtual Dinner Party is a series of online events which started as a solution to the problem of people not being able to gather together and have dinners. While I was rooted in a small village in south western India, the project still needed to be released for the real audience where they could interact and exchange a dialogue about food.

In an attempt to connect people from across the globe and initiate an interaction about their own food cultures, an online dine-together session was held; which gathered participants from the United States, India and UK. The very first session was followed by 4 more sessions with people participating from all over the world. The intention of the Virtual Dinner Party was to connect the people back to their food. A dialogue was initiated about the journey of food from farms to the table and the rituals associated with each culture. Some ground rules were set, which gave a framework to the event. It helped in getting insights into the audience of Shifting FoodCultures.

Development of design language for the communication collaterals was based on the core values of the event - Having an inclusive session without any culture barriers. Visuals were designed in the same way where there was no representation of skin color, cultures, geographies, etc. It was meant for a global audience who would easily think that this event is for them.

Virtual Dinner Party connected people through food and initiated the dialogue about cultures, rituals, systems and ingredients. As an Individual, the process of structuring, planning, curating, advertising, organising and hosting the event has taught me to perform various roles on the peripheries of graphic design. It was not only about designing the communication collaterals; but connecting with people, planning a strategy, researching and thinking about technicalities such as time zones and dinner timings, etc. From hosting the session and releasing the session highlights, the complete process helped me grow as a designer.

It taught me that an event like this needs an update all the time, may it be inviting different stakeholders in the food system, assigning themes to the events or just switching to different modes of social platforms for better reach.

Since this project is for the real time audience and it is growing with increasing responses, the plan for expanding it into a platform is in progress. A separate website and social media pages will be created after renaming the event. The project will be officially registered as a company to carry on events and collaborations with anthropologists and food experts all over the world. It will be an opportunity to reach a wider audience and gather information about various cultures and communities engaging with food.