Roos creates personal graduation project about eating disorders

At first glance, the work of Roos Vonk (Illustration Design student) looks like a cozy table setting with bright blue-and-white tableware and a matching tablecloth. On the wall behind it hang tiles in the same colors as traditional Delft blue ceramics. But when I move closer, I read the words on one of the tiles: “olive oil per 100 g 884 kcal.” Only then does it become clear what the work is really about. “That’s exactly the point,” Vonk says when I tell her the meaning only gradually dawns on me. She did not want to make the subject — an eating disorder — feel too heavy, especially because so much taboo still surrounds it. By keeping it light, she finds it easier to talk about.

At the time she had to choose a subject for her graduation project, her eating disorder completely occupied her mind. What started out of necessity gradually turned into a form of research: she decided to make this personal struggle the subject of her final project. In her thesis, she explored the history of beauty ideals and how they differ across cultures. Slowly, it became a topic she could observe with a more analytical perspective and from an increasing emotional distance. She visualized her eating disorder as a character: a blue monster that reappears throughout her work. It emerged during an emotional moment, as a personification of the voice inside her head, and became the starting point for the blue-and-white theme.

Vonk tells me about the misunderstanding that still exists around eating disorders. In a short animated video, built from her playful drawings, the voice in her head speaks in very literal terms: “Do you know how many calories are in that?” The video conveys in a clear and accessible way what living with those thoughts feels like for her. The goal is not necessarily to help others, she says, but to make people feel less alone and to create more understanding. “The project has played a major role in how I feel now,” says Vonk.