Tofurky Lettering

This summer I’ve been working with Tofurky on various projects, all rated very high on the level of fun had. Tofurky is a local company from Hood River, Oregon that makes meat-alternative products, including their inaugural product of a non-Turkey that also gave the company its name (a spoonerism of FAUX and TURKEY). While not a vegetarian myself, the brand resonates with me because of its positive and intentional mission as well as the playful way they communicate it. Food should be fun after all!

tofurky-brand-banner

The first part of the project was to make some logo spin-offs so there was a casual and unique way to insert the Tofurky brand into secondary branding without feeling too serious. Two sets of Tofurky “nametags” were created, the first of which is shown below. For this series the defining feature was mimicking the angle and basic form of the Tofurky logo, but altering the letterforms so they are more playful. It also involved working with Tofurky’s current brand assets, which included an awesome set of illustrations done by Kate Sutton of animals, trees and little beans and lentils just doing their thing. Integrating these brand assets into the new work was both fun and a good way to illustrate in a specific style. Success? Well I’ve never seen a pair of beans high-five that hard, so yeah.

Tofurky-merchandise-type-treatments-2

The next step of the project was to build a library of hand drawn lettering assets to use in their merchandise and promotion. Working with independent creative director Gary Huck, we made a slew of brand sayings and lettering/illustration combos, the first of which is being used on a tote bag and is a great representation of the Tofurky mindset: good for people, good for animals, and good for the environment. Hard to argue with that. We focused on the repeated word so it was a quick read and compact compositionally, with details of the saying appearing in banners around the main message: GOOD. A combination of Kate’s and my illustration fill the GOOD type so it’s a complete mash-up of type & illustration. My favorite kind!

Tofurky-good-typography

That’s it for now – stay tuned for more work from the Tofurky lettering project…

Flags of Portland Part 2

Here are a few more post waving ideas for my golden (or gray) city of inhabitancy. What would your quintessential Portland flag look like?

TOP LEFT Keep Portland Weird, or as a fellow designer named this flag, Earthquake Alert. TOP RIGHT Rose City Pride. MIDDLE LEFT Old school. MIDDLE RIGHT Portland, post global warming. BOTTOM LEFT Portland, so hip it hurts. BOTTOM RIGHT Now legal.

various flags of Portland, Oregon

These are a follow up to the first set of flags which included, now in high definition…

TOP LEFT MMMM, beer. TOP RIGHT Hipster plaid (more colors available). MIDDLE LEFT Portland, city of dogs. MIDDLE RIGHT Surrogate Sun. BOTTOM LEFT I can’t believe this hasn’t been done yet. BOTTOM RIGHT Bike Chain Gang.

various flags of Portland, Oregon

A Half Dozen Animal Explanations

Over the last year I’ve done a half dozen of these simple “animal explanation” tiles. Today I’m posting the last tile, Turtle Explains the Tough Things, in context of the full line-up: Ostrich Explains the Basics, Bear Explains the Obvious, Fish Explains the Facts of Life, Dog Explains Darwin, and Penguin Explains the Universe. Sometimes animals know how to explain it best.

animal-explanation-compilation

The Bad Touch

A follow up to Jungle Animal Rap, this idea started and ended within 3 seconds when the song The Bad Touch popped into my head and I saw this animal collage in my head. The obvious next step is to get it out on paper or screen as fast as possible before you think it’s a bad idea. So here ya go (jury is still out)!

The typography is a hand-drawn creation blending the attributes of Knockout Junior Liteweight and Block Berthold. I wonder if Hoefler & Co ever considered releasing a version called “Knockout Baby Steps”.

Jungle animal depiction of the Bloodhound Gang song The Bad Touch with the lyrics: you and me baby ain't nothing but mammals, so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel. Have fun giraffe, monkey, boa, bird and rhino. Uh yeah.

Home Cranked Packaging

I’m excited to finally say TA-DA and share a special project from last year – packaging and branding for Home Cranked ice cream mix. This is an organic and premium quality ice cream base that you can use to make any flavor imaginable, brought to you by the folks at Naia Gelateria. Just use the plain base to add any ingredient to make crowd pleasing flavors or perhaps a palate-testing flavor for your more adventurous ice cream eating cohorts. Or if you’re in a pinch, chug the plain base straight from the carton to satisfy instant ice cream cravings. Any way you cut it, YOU WIN.

Packaging design for Home Cranked ice cream mix.

This project was in my wheelhouse for oh so many reasons. First, ice cream. I mean, ICE CREAM. Second, it was a print packaging project which had the fun limitations of being 4 colors and printed with flexography that has certain parameters in which it looks good. The design also needed to accommodate for potential new products. Lastly, I got to work with a crack team.

Carton packaging design for Home Cranked ice cream mix, showing all three side of the carton.

I was brought in by Owen Jones to help Naia create the Home Cranked brand from scratch. The Bureau created the logo, packaging, illustrations, branding and guidelines while Owen managed the project, implemented the site, marketing, social media strategy, and additional brand efforts. I even got to pull in food writer Jen Stevenson to make a delicious contribution of words that really made the packaging sing. Having worked with both Owen and Naia in the past, it was a trifecta of design positivity and collaboration. Or, as Jen would say: scoop savant, this is your destiny!

Currently Home Cranked is on a test run in Whole Foods Markets in California, but if things go well it could be coming to a store near you. Stay tuned for a more in-depth post on the logo, branding and icon set soon…in the meantime check out Home Cranked online.