Superfoods

→ Researching superfoods and chia seeds to understand their origins and recent public interest

• 🛣️ Sector: Food and Nutrition, Data, Science, Data Visualization
• 🧭 Team/Client:Elisava - Master Thesis
• 📆 Timeline: 9 months
• ⛑️ Role: Research, Writing, Data Visualization, Coding, Illustration, Animation, UI/UX
• ⚒️ Tools: Illustrator, Github, Adobe Suite

💬 Introduction

Superfoods have been in vogue in recent years as consumers look for healthier and more nutritionally dense options for their diet. But, where do superfoods come from? Although they seem to have appeared overnight, many superfoods have an ancient and

indigenous origin

Superfood Story is my master thesis project that explores superfoods through chia seeds. It includes an article on how chia was banned, lost, and rediscovered, and a short video game where you play as a chia seed navigating its own history.

💡 Concept
Understanding the origin of superfoods

🎯 Goal
Explore the cultural and historical journey of chia seeds

⚠️ Considerations
Large scope of research,
Complex network of food and culture,
How to make historical research engaging

✅ Solution
An article and interactive videogame that blend education with entertainment

🔎 Research

During my research I noticed a common pattern; due to their cultural significance, several indigenous foods were banned during colonization. Initially, I planned to explore 3 superfoods—amaranth, chia seeds, and spirulina—but the narrative felt too broad and scattered.

I decided to focus on chia seeds. Their dramatic history, from a vital role in ancient Mesoamerican cultures, then being banned and forgotten after colonization, and finally their modern revival, offered a compelling story.

To shape the project, I curated detailed research on ancient diets, nutritional information, and modern food markets. I also tested various visualization techniques, including food photography and conceptual maps.

📚 Resources
Documentaries on Mesoamerican cultures
Nutrition courses and research papers
Nutritional information on superfoods
Food and consumer market data

🧩 Exploration
Food photography, illustration, conceptual maps

🔑 Key Learning
Use chia seeds as an example to tell a common story

📝 Definition

My main goal was to share this story with as many people as possible. I decided to write an online article that would be easy to access and share. The journey of chia seeds felt incredibly dramatic, and I wanted more people to feel the weight that they were lost for hundreds of years. For this, I conceptualized a short video game where users could experience the journey of chia seeds firsthand.

With these goals in mind, I explored various ways to present the story, ultimately choosing pixel art as the ideal style. I wanted to convey the concept of small pieces coming together—just like chia seeds—and symbolize the idea of building something larger.

📑 Format Definition
Digital article for easy sharing
Video game to connect with users

🕹️ Visual Style
Pixel art to emulate small seeds

🔑 Key Learning
Let the user experience the emotional weight of the story

🎏 Design Highlight

I wanted the article to feel cohesive and fully embrace the video game theme—from the visualizations to the fonts. Every detail needed to be fun and lively, so I planned to visualize key concepts from each paragraph and design charts to represent important data points.

To bring the story to life, I focused on the details. I also created short animated loops and illustrations that anthropomorphize different foods, which would help guide users through the narrative in an engaging way.

✈️ Implementation

Users should be able to unravel the complex networks of food and culture by simply scrolling. So, after organizing my research, I wrote an article that started with introduction to superfoods and their origin as a marketing term. Then I highlighted various foods with indigenous origins to then focus on chia seeds.

I wanted to support the text visually so I planned to have interesting elements for each paragraph. I developed all the illustrations, animations, and front-end code for the website, which is hosted on GitHub.

For the video game component, I collaborated with a programmer and a music composer. While I conceptualized the gameplay and created the visuals, the programmer handled game mechanics, and the composer developed a soundtrack that enhanced the emotional depth of the experience.

🖥️ Digital Article
16 Illustrations
12 Animations
9 Data visualizations

🎮 Videogame
4 Levels

🎏 Design Highlight

I’ve always loved video games as a medium for storytelling. The player becomes the protagonist as they experience the story firsthand. In the case of Superfood Story, the simple mechanics with compelling music immersed the user in the narrative, allowing them to connect with the content in a new way.

The game was split into four key chapters:

1. Discovery of chia seeds and cultivation

2. Destruction of crops during colonization due to their role in religious practices

3. Chia’s loss to history for hundreds of years

4. Rediscovery in modern times by researchers and its rise as a superfood

🌟Results

The project was well-received, with positive feedback on its art style and engaging storytelling.

At the end, the results were:

• Pages of research summarized into a simple narrative

• A story that highlights the role of indigenous people

• An interactive article that told the story of chia and superfoods

• A desktop game with original music

• A unique visual identity for the project

• Detailed visualizations and gif animations
  

If I had more time I would have loved to make the website mobile friendly, add specific triggers to the animations and develop an online campaign to share the story. I hope that one day I can revisit this project and expand the research on other indigenous foods.

🎯 Deliverables
Research summarized into a simple article
Interactive website
Narrative-driven video game

☀️ Wrap up
Personal lessons

Food is so essential that we often overlook its complexity. This project was a journey of discovery—not just about chia seeds, but about food itself and the deep cultural connections it carries. To tell this story the way I envisioned, I had to push myself to grow as a designer, storyteller, and developer. The entire process reinforced how powerful design can be in making complex topics engaging and accessible, and how keeping storytelling at the core can lead to more impactful designs.