Found this apple in the greengrocers today. The message is purported to read 'Organic farm' but I have yet to find someone who can translate. It's been made by covering the apple before it ripens and reddens with a clear wrapper with black characters to block out the light, a perfect photogram or sun print. It has to be the ultimate integral grow-your-own label without any packaging.
The "label" changed how I saw this apple. The surprise of seeing the apple bearing a message I could not read made me curious, and lead me to imagine the labour-intensive activity of wrapping individual fruit on the tree to make the photogram. Only a few fruit in the box had labels, following in the tradition of boxes of citrus fruit, which bear stripes of attractive tissue-wrapped fruit to catch the eye. This was no longer any old apple but a clever apple with its own inventive label. It made me notice it, marvel at the clever branding of the fruit and the edible function of the "no-sticker" label, and want to own it, even though this apple has been imported from China and has clocked up a ridiculous number of air miles.
It fulfilled the three catagories, visceral, behavioural and reflective, named by Don Norman in his book "Emotional Design". (www.jnd.org)
It may not strictly have been designed as much as grown, but the addition of the grown-on label give it a high visceral appeal and initial impact, the label itself is functional and can be eaten, fulfilling behavioural criteria, and the apple itself, with its integral brand name commands prestige. This apple made it to the display case in the Graphics department at college.
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