Just in time for the end of summer, here comes another ice cream project (I hear the first project, Gelato by Naia, is available at Zupan’s on Belmont – after tasting 6 flavors I can guarantee they are delicious)!
This gig was for a small home-grown ice cream vendor from Charleston, South Carolina, who works under the name Scoop Love. More grassroots than most, the ice cream is only available at the local farmer’s market with scoops being served from a small ice cream cart.
Logo, palette and main icon.
Inspired by the 50s ice cream culture and parlor style, the branding is as simple as possible in a throwback analog way. Most items are 2 colors and the use of elements is repetitive and straight forward. The entire system relies on only an iconic waffle cone pattern, a circle, and a heart here and there. Continue reading “Scoop Love Branding”→
One of my favorite subjects to work with is food. I also love helping people start up their own thing, whether it’s publishing their own book, building a website service, or bringing a new product to market. So when writer Mona Johnson contacted me to create a logo and illustrations for her burgeoning food blog focused on the Pacific Northwest, it was a perfect match.
She wanted a spare and refined look paired with detailed line illustrations to punctuate her stories and beautifully understated and vibrant photography. After the first few posts, I think the combination is a success – check out her site here: www.theflavorprofiles.com.
The logo typography was hand-drawn, a trait Mona and I thought should be consistent throughout inked elements, but derived from didone fonts for cleanness and a sense of professionalism.
The Flavor Profiles logo.
The illustrations were created at a detail level so they could be used either large and in charge, or as small icons sprinkled throughout the site.
The Flavor Profiles illustrations in miniature size.
A close up of the first five large illustrations made for The Flavor Profiles: knife, pitchfork, cast iron pan, chanterelle mushroom, and dungeness crab.
Several years ago I created a logo and packaging for Bar Gelato through Substance. The product did well in stores, which spurred the birth of gelato in a tub. Naia Gelateria requested creative direction for a packaging line that related to the original bars and stood out on the shelves as straightforward and modern.
Chocolate gelato made with TCHO Chocolate.
It was an interesting project with the task of blending the brand recognition of Bar Gelato with the original store brand of Naia Gelateria. To capitalize on shopper recognition for a product that was positioned in two different areas in the grocery store, we repurposed the hand drawn Bar Gelato logotype to read just “Gelato” by Naia.
A universal lid reinforced the original Naia brand.
The results were a packaging series with a strong color presence on shelf and a small ingredient icon to differentiate flavors. Using a universal orange lid reinforced Naia’s hand while the scalloped butcher paper and fonts referenced Bar Gelato.
Strong color differentiation helped distinguish flavors on the shelf.
Currently the tubs are available at specialty markets in Northern California, or you can check out Naia’s selection of Bar Gelato. Similarly to Bar Gelato’s release, interest in carrying the tubs has been positive so expect availability to increase exponentially!
The original and inaugural packaging for Naia’s first in-store product, Bar Gelato.
I’m an omnivore – if it tastes good, yes please. But for some reason I am surrounded by herbivores (also known as vegetarians), and even further along on the scale of consumers, vegans. It makes eating together with friends and family a game of mix and match.
Meat, no meat? Dairy, no dairy? Beer that might possibly have touched a fish scale in the process of being made, or beer that has not? And then there are the people who only eat popcorn.
Being surrounded by such a diverse group of eaters definitely makes you think twice about the menu, especially when you arrive for a Danish Christmas dinner with 7 courses of meat topped off with a dairy laden dessert. It isn’t easy being a green-lover sometimes. So for all of those who are, here is a veggie picnic.
My partner in dining crime (including but not limited to: root beer taste testing, Tour de Nacho, Danish Julefrokost, and juicer extraordinaire), writer Jen Stevenson has recently launched the next step in her march towards world domination via culinary storytelling by creating the website Wordcake.
On Wordcake you can buy exhaustingly comprehensive and entertaining eating e-guides for select cities, get the book 100 Best Places to Stuff Your Faces in Portland, and protect your iPhone against food foibles with custom cases. If you’ve ever dropped your phone into a chocolate cake, you’ll know the importance of protecting it. Here are the first four designs created for Wordcake’s new line of products.
Recently my design friend Carli and I embarked upon a large side project together – making a lemonade stand for Restaurant Day, an event where anybody can make a pop-up restaurant for a day.
We hand-mixed three exotic flavors, created a booth with bunting and handmade signage, and even made a promotional video for our endeavor. Click here see recipes and photos from our lemonade stand adventure.
Recently my design friend Carli and I embarked upon a large side project together – making a lemonade stand for Restaurant Day, an event where anybody can make a pop-up restaurant for a day.
We hand-mixed three exotic flavors, created a booth with bunting and handmade signage, and even made a promotional video for our endeavor. Click here see recipes and photos from our lemonade stand adventure.
Four times a year Restaurant Day occurs around the world, where anybody can create a pop-up restaurant for a day. In Copenhagen usually 30 or so teams participate, resulting in a plethora of interesting food options for the day which you can find via a handy app.
In March of 2013, my Australian design friend Carli, her husband Wouter and I toured the booths of Restaurant Day Copenhagen. We drank koldskål on Queen Louises Bridge, tried champagne sorbet in a Nørrebro courtyard, and had a 3-course meal on the street near St. Hans Square accompanied by a Cuban band.
We had a fantastic time and vowed to participate with our own booth at the next Restaurant Day. Our contribution would be…A LEMONADE STAND.
The Lemon Rocket Video
Like any over-eager adult purveyors of handcrafted lemonade, we made a short video promoting our Lemonade Stand. If you’ve ever wondered how lemonade was made, this video reveals all. Thanks to the team at Jip Jip for animation and Matthew Matthew for the music clip.
Three Recipes
Carli and I perfected our homemade lemonade syrups to taste just so. We even employed the help of a small team of taste testers from Holland (Wouter & Family) to give us feedback on our initial recipes.
Each flavor was sold for 20kr (about $3.50) with an special upgrade to a “Grandpa’s Lemonade” (hint: add gin) for 40kr. We also shared the recipes with visitors so they could make their own homemade lemonade.
Lemon & Lavender
– in a saucepan: 1 part sugar + 1 part water + 1 tablespoon lavender
– simmer 5 mins and then cool
– juice 2 lemons
– drain lavender bits out, add lemon to make syrup
– mix syrup (approx a shot glass, or to taste) with a cup of bubbly water, lemon slice and ice
Cucumber & Mint
– two cucumbers: peel + chop + blend
– drain juice
– in a saucepan: 1 part sugar + 1 part water + bunch of mint
– simmer 5 min. remove mint. cool. add cucumber juice to make syrup.
– mix syrup (approx a shot glass, or to taste) with a cup of bubbly water, lemon slice and ice (garnish with mint)
Strawberry & Basil
– in a saucepan: 1 part sugar + 1 part water + bunch of basil
– simmer 5 mins and then cool
– blend 100 grams strawberries with some fresh basil
– mix liquid with strawberries to make syrup
– mix syrup (approx a shot glass, or to taste) with a cup of bubbly water, lemon slice and ice (garnish with basic and strawberry slice)
Spreading the Word
Of course we made a Facebook event to attract customers and posted vigorously about our preparations and product offerings. At one point, an attendee commented “I get the point, I’m COMING to your Lemonade Stand!”. YAY!
We were as excited as two kids on the first day of school, and the day of reckoning was drawing nearer.
Our Lemonade Stand
Carli and Mette at their lemonade stand.
Carli and I spent hours hand painting directional lemon signage and making Pantone perfect bunting to decorate our tent. We had everything planned to a T…except the weather. Be warned future lemonade stand entrepreneurs! If there is anything that will foil your plans on a successful business model it will be BAD WEATHER.
On the day of the big event it was windy and rainy and not at all conducive to selling lemonade. A follow up project to this one could be writing the guide “How to Sell Lemonade in Inclement Weather” with the following chapter outline:
1. Don’t 2. Weather to Attendance Ratios 3. Upping Sales with Alcohol Add-Ons 4. Wind Resistant Tent Solutions 5. Frostbite Avoidance & Ice Cube Handling 6. What to do when Drunk People Request Freebies, and When Denied, Pee in the Bushes Nearby 7. If You Survive
But, our main goal was to have fun, which we accomplished in spades. We surprised customers with our unorthodox lemonade flavors, we visited with the local Jehovah Witnesses who took shelter from the rain under our stand, and we had enough leftovers to give private lemonade tastings to friends, family and co-workers.
Next up: Restaurant Day Fall 2013 (if I can convince Carli to repeat the madness…)
Directional rocket signage.Pantone perfect handmade bunting.All you need to know.Our production line.The three flavors…(well, four if you count the Finsbury addition.)Cucumber & Mint, Strawberry & Basil, Lavender & Lemons – with handmade bottle tags.Customers braving the weather to try our lemonade.
Food is one of my favorite subjects: to look at, to eat, to talk about, to draw. Notice that I do not mention ‘to make’. My entire life there have been people around me who were better at making food than I am. Why not let the cooking experts make the food, and the eating experts consume it? Seems like a logical plan. However, it does result in an achilles heal when left alone. My survival strategy therefore consists of A) making a giant portion of fajitas/dahl/spaghetti that provides sustenance for most of a week, or B) ordering something out that equates to days of leftovers – a very tall order.
My uncle once asked what my sister and I wanted for dinner on a particular evening. “Stuffed turkey!” I exclaimed as my sister simultaneously cried “Calimari!” Not daunted in the least, my uncle made both, along with a 3-course following for each. My aunt contributed with a marzipan cake. At the end of the meal, a liter of ice cream was placed before me and I was told “if you don’t eat it, it will melt”. There didn’t seem to be a choice. Sometimes, things are just bound to go wrong.
