Yeonji Kim

I believe design is more than just making something look beautiful — it’s a tool that helps move the world in a better direction.

My Final Major Project, Bumpy, began after I witnessed how often my friends wasted food. What started as a concern about food waste grew into a deeper exploration: how can we reduce what’s thrown away, and how can we make better use of what already exists? Eventually, that journey led me to focus on “ugly vegetables” — produce that gets discarded simply because of how it looks.

In fact, around 40% of food produced on farms never uses consumers. A significant portion of this is perfectly edible vegetables that fail to meet aesthetic standards. Bumpy was created to help reduce this kind of waste by delivering these imperfect vegetables directly to people’s homes at an affordable price. As part of the campaign, we offered a free keyring with the first box, and used social media ads, posters, and website of cooking recipes to spread the word.

Through this project, I wanted people to rethink their relationship with food. A vegetable’s shape doesn’t define its value — and in fact, these imperfections invite us to reflect on our own consumption habits. Bumpy is more than just a subscription box; it’s a small, hopeful push toward a more sustainable and compassionate world.

In the end, design is about how we choose to see and solve problems. Through this project, I learned that design can be a way to gently mend the cracks in our world. An oddly shaped carrot or a knobbly potato might seem insignificant — but choosing them can be a radical, beautiful act.

Bumpy is the seed of that change. 🌱