I’m Bodil, a book and identity designer from Trondheim, Norway, holding a PhD in Typography & Graphic Communication from the University of Reading. My research interest concentrates on the verbal and visual presentation of health messages on food labels dating from 1850 to 1970. Please read my blog and have a look at my work. Feel free to get in touch if you think there is something I can do for you.
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PhD | Today I have officially been awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Many thanks to the University of Reading and the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication for the opportunity to be part of the research culture. It has been a challenging and exciting journey with tons of knowledge, archival, structuring, discussions, thinking and writing, including a pandemic.
PhD | I was excited to enter Teams and the online viva voce examination with Dr Alison Barnes and Professor Eric Kindel today. It went well, and I enjoyed the conversation. After two and a half hours, they confirmed that I had passed and recommended that I would be awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, subject to minor amendments being made to my thesis.
Celebrating with Trine Neumann-Larsen at Britannia Hotel. Happy, exhausted and very proud.
PhD | Today, 16 May 2022, I submitted my thesis. Happy, relieved, exhausted and proud. In the next few months, I will prepare for the online viva voce examination to be held on Tuesday, 2 August 2022. I will be examined by Dr Alison Barnes, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney, Australia and Professor Eric Kindel, Head of Department, Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading.
Tomorrow is the Norwegian Constitution Day which will be a great day to celebrate in many ways.
PHD | The Centre for Ephemera Studies is located in the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication and holds much exciting material from 1800 to the present day; from domestic and imported food labels to advertisements and posters. I have spent many hours in this room, going through each box at the time.
By Alison Black
Postgraduate research communication success. Congratulations to postgraduate researcher Bodil Mostad Olsen who has won the University’s prize for research communication in a poster competition, held as part of the University’s annual Doctoral Research Conference. Bodil’s communication of her research topic – the history of health communication on food labels – was judged top among a very competitive field of posters representing research across a wide range of arts, science and social science disciplines. Her poster illustrates her collections-based research. It shows the changing influences of scientific understanding of food hygiene and nutrition, food packaging technology, and societal change on the presentation of food to consumers from 1850–1970. This area of typographic and graphic communication practice, although influential in people’s everyday decision-making, has not been considered previously from this wide, contextual perspective.