Sparatic Responses to "Pre-Made"

Our new assignment, which I'm uber excited about, is a polymer plate print with the theme of "made." I drew the prefix of "pre" and have various ideas...
My first reaction was prepackaged, manufactured, artificial thoughtfulness. Like greeting cards. All you have to do is grab one off of a categorized shelf, sign your name, and hand it to the person. There's no thought involved. Another example was pre-made cakes that you buy and have them fill in the blank with someone's name. All you have to do is pick one (and spell their name right). This has got me a bit stuck on a food theme: the "Just add water" mixes, shake 'n bake, cut and bake cookies, microwave dinners, Lunchables... Then the idea of fast food: it's there waiting for you to pick it, barely personalizable. Dining halls or cafeterias with pre-made food sitting out, you have choices, but at the same time, you have no choices. All you have to do it pick something. I was feeling the "Just add water" for awhile, but then I realized it's not something that's entirely pre-made, you do still have to add that water! Something more in the right direction is "No assembly required." None. It's already made, you just have to choose one. I like the idea of those magnetic words that you create sentences with on the fridge. They are there, waiting for you, you just have to pick the order. Like pre-made page layouts in programs where all you have to do is drag in pictures, text, clip-art... Those last two might be more assembly than I would like to portray. I'm really intrigued with the idea of using greeting cards to display this "pre-made" concept... maybe tying it together with the fast food/cafeteria style walking-with-a-tray and "Just pick one!" Mostly concept craziness thus far... More to come.