THE MYTH

ORIGIN STORY / WHAT IS IT?

I created Kindred Cuts, a seemingly wholesome traveling food truck that quietly hinted at something darker beneath its branding. Specifically, a connection between mysterious disappearances and a menu filled with “Mystery Melt” sandwiches and suspiciously vague “fresh daily” meats. The myth used design realism to imply cannibalism without ever stating it directly.

UH... WHY?

I was interested in how easily people trust highly curated branding—especially around food—and how design can mask malevolent intent. Food trucks often market themselves with friendliness, nostalgia, and buzzwords like local, authentic, and family-run. Kindred Cuts plays on that tension: a brand that tries a little too hard to appear normal.

WHAT INSPIRED IT?

• Our obsession with "authentic" food culture
• The rise of Instagram microbrands
• the way true crime culture mythologizes everyday places
• The question: How much can design hide in plain sight?

HOW DID I MAKE IT BELIEVABLE?

• A brand identity
• Accurate artifacts for the time period (modern day)
• Using subtle horror, never explicit and always suggestive
• Realistic digital ephemera (hashtags, poorly compressed images, comments)

THE RELEASE

HOW DID I SET THIS MYTH FREE?

The Kindred Cuts Foodtruck myth primarily lived through Instagram, and was supported a little bit by a reddit post made to the r/foodtrucks subreddit pointing some questions towards the Instagram account. I was hoping by bringing this myth across multiple platforms, it would mirror how actual myths and rumors spread on social media.

OK, BUT WHY INSTAGRAM?

Instagram is where modern food brands announce themselves and interact with their community. Using it made the myth feel current and casual. I also thought it would be a great place for a brand "finally making their way into social media", as a "better late than never" sort of appearance.

WHAT DID I EXPECT?

I hopefully anticipated a mix of curiosity, unease, and some engagement. I wanted people to think this was just some legitimate random foodtruck that was roaming around, and If users paid close attention, they would notice the eerie details.

THE ARTIFACTS

THE FOOD TRUCK

FLYER

LOGO

INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT

MISSING PERSON FLYER CONNECTING TO KINDRED CUTS

POV AT FOOD TRUCK

THE WORLD'S RESPONSE

RESPONSES ON REDDIT

I stated before that I had posted to the r/foodtrucks. I posted a link to the Kindred Cuts Instagram account I made and just asked if this account looked "off" to anyone else. The responses took a little while, but after about 3.9 thousand people saw the post I got a few comments ripping the myth apart right away. They caught on to the usage of AI images right away but also accused some non-AI images to be AI which was an interesting note.

RESPONSES ON INSTAGRAM

I didnt have much luck actually getting people to interact with Kindred Cuts on Instagram besides liking the posts and following the account. There were some promotional accounts that commented to try to get Kindred Cuts to promote through them but I hardly count that.

THE REFLECTION

HOW DID THIS MYTH BEHAVE DIFFERENT THAN I THOUGHT?

I thought this myth would live on Instagram for a little bit and with continuous posting of where the truck was going to next and realistic timelines for when it would be there, along with hashtags relating to the nearby locations, people would interact with it a little bit more. There were a couple eerie images I was hoping people would pick up and question in the comments, which to my knowledge didn't really happen. 

WHAT DOES THIS REVEAL?

One thing all of this reveals to me, is that, especially around the time of Halloween, peopl are pretty numb so seeing weird things like this on the internet, and are quick to point something out and label it as being AI. While AI was a use in this study, I was surprised to see the comment on reddit resorting to images being AI right away even though one of the ones pointed out was just an image of a real cheeseburger.

THE RELEVANCE

BRAND STORYTELLING

I built an entire microbrand using a specific tone of voice and visual identity in order to make it feel like a real, living, breathing brand that is out there for people to interact with...even though it isn't.

CULTURAL/AUDIENCE RESEARCH

I designed artifacts and assets that felt time accurate and platform accurate. In the case of Kindred Cuts it was a modern day Instagram profile updating customers on where the foodtruck would be next and when. This is grounded with how actual foodtrucks interact with customers.

STRATEGIC/CRITICAL DESIGN THINKING

I used design to drive how this brand's narrative is reflected into the world. Showing how the visual language shapes the behavior of the brand.

ADAPTABILITY WITH UNEXPECTED RESULTS

I iterated designs quickly when it came to posts on Instagram depending on how much interactions there were. I kept it minimal and food related with slight twists of eerie images after the food or hidden among them. 

Cole Hansen

Graphic Designer in Duluth, Minnesota