The process of public image

27 January 2009

Few people become public figures. The people that become public figures have developed their community status via a unique set of talents, skills, right of passage, knowledge or birth right. Above all attributes required by public figures is the ability to deliver, engage and grow an audience. This quality is where the magic, the fuzzy stuff, the ooga booga, the charisma is found, this quality lures the audience and subsequently creates folk heros.

In the contemporary world of cooking and food preparation one may be bold enough to define contemporary cooking history into two distinctive periods — as cooking and food preparation BEFORE JAMIE — BJ, and AFTER JAMIE — AJ. Not since Antonin CarÃªme the French haute cuisine chef circa 1792 Paris Revolution, or Elizabeth David and her influence on the British diet post World War II England, has one person been so influencial and prominent.

Oliver‘s food musings are designed for high impact in the western world‘s vision for food. His activities extend well beyond typical recipes, restaurants, cook books and cooking on tv… Oliver‘s food conversation speaks via the internet, blogs, mobile video casts, live shows, community projects and word of mouth. The act of making food crosses to forums that assist people make better food, making food preparation fun, empowering people to grow and invent food, readdressing food in schools, helping the under privileged via careers in food, to traveling fused with food fused with culture.

Oliver‘s humble and infectious enthusiasm for food is quirky as his wayward quiff, (which back in 1999 my Grandma called bed hair). Food in Jamie‘s world is above status and your bank balance. In his world, good food is a right, rather than a case of which western city suburb you live. Oliver is the popular voice for good food that doesn‘t come in a box, delivered via “drive thru“, or has an option to up size.

The design of Oliver‘s image seemed to be driven by Oliver himself. Unlike many big brands that are highly controlled and calculated Oliver‘s sense of brands is erratic, and driven less by convention and more by instinct. In the 10 years since Oliver published â€˜Jamie Oliver — The Naked Chef‘ in 1999, Oliver‘s career and his cook book covers, tell a subtle story of Oliver‘s development.

In the early days the image simply communicated a vibrant upstart boy passionate for food. The design and image reflected his youth being naive, personal, uncomplicated, raw and somewhat clunky.

Money, children, success, travel, celebrity, the public life, and media harassment have shaped a media and marketing savvy Oliver over time. The raw images portrayed at the beginnings of his career are a sign of Oliver‘s vision to continually fine tune and style his image, allowing the audience to grow with Oliver as his career evolves.

Oliver‘s latest book — Jamie‘s Ministry of Food — is yet another visual milestone documenting his career. In the previous publications Oliver‘s raw wild boy image gave way to a young time poor dad, and now Oliver has buffed up and tightened up. His Daddy fat is gone, the kitchen skin has been retouched and perfectly lit, the hair is just right, his imperfections groomed. The natural settings are gone too and a stylised set keeps the viewer‘s gaze firmly on Oliver‘s naughty angel like composure. The food is strangely unsophisticated, and his poised clichÃ©d pose — looks like he is about to tuck into Mum‘s Sunday roast. The type treatment continues to be highly refined and brand like. The wording is lean, carefully scripted and designed. The series title — Jamie‘s Ministry of Food — hams up the hype surrounded by Oliver‘s celebrity — the cult of Jamie, Jamie the high priest of food, amen. The cover image now so refined that at postage stamp size — the size used by book reviewers and displayed in publishers catalogs, to poster scale the cover communicates clearly and effectively. The content beyond the cover is another journey in publishing where the simple act of publishing recipes is intertwined with continuing process of story and information making.

Often it is easy to gaze over market favourites, like Jamie, to seek out the cult design, yet in the instance where the brand is the person it is compelling to observe how they continue to invent their story over time.

Following are the covers tracking Oliver‘s work, at home we don‘t have all his books, that said Oliver‘s books are prominent in our cook book collection and we have enough to show the changes he has made to his image over ten years. This post came to be just for the simple reason that cook books are familiar in the kitchen space and are a good sample of a designer‘s work. Rather than extensively labeling these images we chosen to let the covers tell the story, as they did to us.