​Imperfect Is Perfect

HelloFresh thought people wanted beautiful food. They didn’t.

- Jason Feifer

In a photo studio in Manhattan this summer, a prop stylist carefully places toys on a platform. It’s meant to be a playful scene, part of a shoot of family-friendly meals for the meal-delivery startup HelloFresh. But the company’s associate graphic designer, May Parsey, notices a problem. “Is there a way to flip some of them upside down?” she says, and points to a collection of toys. There’s a little plastic flamingo, a miniature tuba, and some playing cards, all facing up in a neat arrangement. “Because if a child were playing with these things, some of them would end up upside down.”