Spiced Design Ham

Jenna Klein

Who doesn’t love loafed, congealed meat? Spiced Design Ham uses SPAM as a vehicle to comment on the accessibility and democratization of graphic design. Following the format of design as recipe, each experiment is a self-contained exploration into the versatility of ingredients that are readily available to all designers, ranging from highbrow to lowbrow. Spiced Design Ham challenges how we define “good” design so that we may begin to embrace the canned materials of design, no matter how initially off-putting they may seem. Like design, SPAM is for anyone but certainly not for everyone.

Recreating SPAM Recipes From Past & Present

The act of cooking SPAM mimics that of graphic design in that the first act is always to slice SPAM multiple ways: a deliberate act of mechanical separation along a clearly defined grid.

Graphic Design as Recipe

Allowing design to be more transparent and accessible so that anyone can interpret these recipes how they wish, and create their own designed concoctions.

Multiple Interpretations

SPAM is the mystery meat of a million uses, making it the ultimate blank canvas.

Extra Fatty

Put the fat back in.

Design on a Stick

The graphic design equivalent of a SPAM Porcupine (a popular appetizer from the 1950’s) featuring Chorizo SPAM, Teriyaki SPAM, and Original Flavor.

User-Generated Content

A more candid look at the meat and the cult culture surrounding it featuring real Amazon.com reviews.

Assisted Readymade

A fully functioning meat clock made using 2 cans of SPAM Original Flavor and a DIY Potato Clock kit.

Mechanically Separated

Silkscreen halftones prove to be a direct correlation between the language of graphic design and mechanically separated meat.

A Little Greasy

Without grease, there is no SPAM.

Six Simple Ingredients

SPAM consists of only six simple ingredients: spiced pork and ham, water, salt, sugar, sodium nitrite, and potato starch which are heavily processed and then congealed together.

Make it Last Forever

Extending SPAM’s shelf-life indefinitely by suspending it in epoxy resin.

Takeaway Pins

SPAM is best when consumed in smaller, more palatable, bite-sized portions and when it is shared with others.