EDIBLE New London Project

EDIBLE New London Project Isabelle Cookson in association with FRESH New London, the New London Five Year Agricultural Planning Commitee, and community partners.

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Table of Contents

About Page 3

Community Partners Page 4

Definition of Terms Page 6

Introduction Page 7

Community Values Page 10

Co-created Logo Design Page 13

“Soups, and Signs” Event Page 19

Community Website Page 23

“Our Picnic” Installation Page 27

“Seed Pops” Events Page 31

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Who’s Behind it All? About the Designer Isabelle Cookson Class of 2019 Major: Studio art, focusing in graphic design Minor: French Ammerman Center Certificate Student Advisor: Professor Andrea Wollensak

A Special Thank You to: Professor Andrea Wollensak The Art Department and the Art Department Faculty FRESH New London: Frida Berrigan, Alicia McAvay and Sean O’Brien Five Year Agricultural Planning Committee The New London Community

EDIBLE

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Community Partners FRESH New London FRESH New London builds momentum for food system change through local agriculture and youth empowerment. They use food to connect the community, encourage stewardship, inspire leadership, and incite change.

Five Year Agriculture Plan The Five Year Agricultural Planning Committee is a group of New London locals interested in the future of their city, youth leaders from FRESH’s youth program, and representatives from food non profits in the area (such as FRESH New London and Fiddleheads Co-Op). All partners are working together to create a detailed five year plan of action for food justice and urban agriculture in New London. These include ideas based on community gardens, snack beds, fruit trees, compost and urban agriculture hubs. The Five Year Plan will inform where EDIBLE New London grows and empower the community to take responsibility for the sites.

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Definition of Terms The definitions came from conversations with New London residents at the Food Justice Workshop run by the FRESH New London Youth Group. Much of the community work with EDIBLE New London has been facilitated by FRESH New London through events and meetings. FRESH leaders and I set up weekly meetings to go over designs and ideas with a focus on co-creation. I was involved in co-design at events like the Five Year Agricultural Planning Committee meetings, where I received feedback, and got to learn more about what is already happening and what is planned for New London urban agriculture and the “Soups and Signs” event, which was an opportunity for New London residents to come together and enjoy soups cooked by their peers, buy FRESH and EDIBLE New London posters and T-shirts, and vote on their favorite logo design for EDIBLE New London. I also presented “Seed Pops” at the “Food Justice Workshop”, where community members came to learn about food justice or injustice in New London, and FRESH’s “Early Plant Sale”. Each meeting and event was a way for me to connect and talk with the community to understand how they view food insecurity, urban agriculture, and community in New London.

Food Justice

Communities having access to healthy, nutritious food they can buy, grow, or sell themselves.

Food Insecurity

Uncertain access to food: surviving not thriving.

Social Design

The collaborative design process of a community and a designer to address and tackle social issues.

Food Apartheid

Food apartheid is a geographic area where fresh food is unaccessible for certain members of society but unlike the imagery of a food desert (which seems natural), apartheid is constructed inaccessibility.

Culturally Appropriate Food

Food that speaks to the heritage of those who eat it. Food that represents the culture of its community should be accessible to those within that society.

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Introduction My focus throughout the semester has been on food and nutrition, whether that be the nutrition label and lack of transparency in the food industry or how the food industry affects the local New London community. There are several exciting initiatives in New London right now that look to address food security and the availability of fresh, culturally appropriate food that shirks food apartheid. FRESH New London and the Five Year Agricultural Committee are two such organizations I paired with for the EDIBLE New London Project which looks to promote urban agriculture in New London.

Some issues identified by local residents in New London are the price and transportation barriers to accessible, affordable, fresh food. EDIBLE New London, in association with FRESH New London and the Five Year Agricultural Plan, addresses these issues by bringing the fresh food into New London itself. EDIBLE New London engages the local residents in reclaiming unused spaces for community gardens. Here, residents will be able to grow their own food, eliminating the issues of transportation, access to fresh fruits and vegetables and culturally appropriate food.

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FRESH New London and the Five Year Agricultural Plan are both focused on activating these aspirations for the New London community through EDIBLE New London.

My role in all this became one of a social and graphic designer. Social design is a way of designing with (not for) a community to actively aid in social issues. It’s about listening to the community to create a project that will be useful to their society and something they can take ownership of since they were also a part of the design process. The social designer is a listening and practicing role that integrates into the society. I worked to do this by partnering with FRESH New London and organizing weekly meetings, joining the Five Year Agricultural Planning Committee, and regularly presenting my work to the community through FRESH led events to talk about EDIBLE New London, gain some perspective and input from the community, and integrate more into the society I’m working to design with.

“[Design] takes place within open– ended co-design processes in which all the involved actors participate in different ways… Design for social innovation is the expert design contribution to a co-design process aiming at social change.”

—Design, When Everybody Designs

By Ezio Manzini

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EDIBLE New London: Community Values These values come from the Five Year Agricultural Plan: Anti racism: centering people of color, generating a cultural shift, anti gentrification.

Putting people over profit: when profit motive overrides human need, the people who are most vulnerable to systemic oppression will not benefit the same, making the outputs of production (produce, products, even employment) inaccessible to the people we mean to serve. Focus on employment and access to livable wages, human needs and health benefits, healing (emotionally, physically, spiritually), and equity (reducing/ removing barriers and meeting people where they are in terms of education, food, access, and resources).

Reallocation of food, money, resources and power: reallocating resources (money) back into to New London and using it to generate things here by ensuring 50% of crops or products produced are sold and donated to low-income families in New London, at least 75% of workers and owners at food organizations reside in New London, and maintaining a focus on divesting from corporate and investing in local businesses.

Environmental preservation: protecting and increasing green spaces in New London, and being conscious of climate change by using eco-friendly products.

Democratic decision making: using a Co-Op system of thinking when making decisions and using a decentralized power model. Focusing on the idea that all voices are valued, no matter the financial contribution.

Also implementing, under the Five Year Agricultural Plan, the idea that no person holds more power than another due to external roles, social status, education etc. This means that there will need to be personal development around understanding “isms� and stereotypes.

Accountability: nothing in society will work without accountability, especially when creating a social enterprise. This means there needs to be accountability within the work in terms of how we work and operate together, and within the community and making sure you’re putting in the work and holding both yourself and those around you accountable. For this accountability to be successful, we also need transparency with each other and the community through public report backs, forums, and making space for community feedback.

No shame or blame over health: meeting people where they are when it comes to health and nutrition in a non judgemental way. Suggesting culturally appropriate options for health and nutrition.

Sustainability: to sustain the life of the community, the land and the work. Bringing focus towards the seed to waste cycle, employment, food access, policy, sustaining stories and heritage, human connection, and health and wellness by increasing life-expectancies and decreasing health disparities.

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Projects and Community Engagement

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EDIBLE New London: Co-created Logo Design The first project I collaborated on with FRESH for EDIBLE New London was co-creating a brand identitiy and designing a logo. The logo should be similar to FRESH’s radish logo but not so overwhelmingly similar that they get confused. EDIBLE New London is different from FRESH because it is a grassroots, community-based organization. Once the sites are set up by FRESH and other community partners along the guidelines of the Five Year Agricultural Plan, it’s up to the local community to continue to grow the sites which will include snack boxes, fruit trees, and community gardens among other natural food and gardening-based initiatives. The logo needed to reflect these aspects of EDIBLE New London by being both community and food driven. To capture these essential characteristics, I worked with FRESH New London to iterate logos and present them to the community through different events such as the Five Year Agricultural Planning Committee meetings, FRESH’s “Soups and Signs” event, the “Food Justice Workshop” and the “Plant Sale”.

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Challenge

Design Strategy

Create a recognizable logo and brand identity for EDIBLE New London that speaks to the community it represents. It must be related to the FRESH New London logo but different enough to have its own identity. As a logo, it must also be noticeable and read well at various sizes.

I wanted to represent New London in the logo design as well as the edible and FRESH connections. Through the design process, I used imagery of the New London skyline as well as various locally grown vegetables as inspiration. The votes from the community event showed that the local population identified more with the vegetable designs.

EDIBLE NL

EDIBLE NL

EDIBLE NL

EDIBLE NL

EDIBLE NL

EDIBLE NL

Engagement

Outcome

I met with FRESH New London on a weekly basis to co-design ideas and make sure that I’m accurately representing the community. To ensure that the logo design was informed by the New London residents, I presented my designs at a “Soups and Signs” community event where local residents could vote on their favorite logo.

The logo designing resulted in a logo and color scheme agreed co-created by community members, FRESH New London, and the Five Year Agricultural Planning Committee. It will be used on all future EDIBLE New London marketing to provide a consistent presence.

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Beet Iterations Logo design is an iterative process that involves co-creation to understand what an organization wants for a logo, combined with an understanding of the ethos of the organization. I’ve worked with FRESH New London before so we began by setting up Tuesday meetings with Frida Berrigan, Alicia McAvay and Sean O’Brien, FRESH New London leaders who are responsible for a large part of the EDIBLE New London push. For this new project, they wanted a logo that showed it was linked to FRESH but different enough to show that there are other communities behind it. I experimented with half of the FRESH logo: the radish and began using beet imagery, since it was similar to the radish. The leaves are a bit bigger on the beet, so they add some counter balance to the text lockup at the bottom. This seemed like a simple icon that would be easily recognizable on multiple scales.

At this point, the typeface and color scheme were also fairly set. We decided to use Futura for the typeface since it’s easy to read at different sizes and is used in all the previous projects I’ve done with FRESH, so the branding would be familiar to the local community.

Edible NL

EDIBLE NL

While looking at the first iterations of EDIBLE New London, we noticed that (especially as a lower-case) “edible” is a strange looking word. From here on, we kept it in all caps to distinguish the D from the B. I also worked on different lock-ups for the words and looking at the visual difference between NL and New London.

EDIBLE

New London

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City Iterations

Edible

New London

EDIBLE NL

Another aspect of the EDIBLE New London project is the urban quality of New London. EDIBLE New London is about bringing fresh, healthy food options into the city through fruit trees, edible snack boxes full of growing berries, and plots where the community can grow their own food. The idea here was to show the aspect of the city. I chose maroon for the buildings to show the bricks of New London and make the logo site–specific. This idea of site–specificity and making the logo special to New London and the New London architecture would be a launch point for several other iterations.

In reviewing the cityscape options, it was important for the EDIBLE New London logo to be relevant to its home and community of New London. The leaders of FRESH and I decided to take the idea of maroon for brick and push it further. I created a layered New London skyline using positive and negative space to show the layers of the city. The green of “EDIBLE” attempts to bring back the plant and gardening side, however it isn’t as obvious as the beet is in conveying the agricultural aspects of the project. The feedback I got from the New London community at the “Soups and Signs” event (on page 19) appreciated how recognizable it was and they felt that it represented New London but felt that for EDIBLE New London, it focused too much on the city scape and not enough on the agricultural aspect.

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EDIBLE EDIBLE 17

Final Logo Design FRESH New London and I held many meetings to decide on the final logo. These included meetings with my design advisor professor Wollensak, the leaders of FRESH, the entire Five Year Agricultural Planning Committee, youth leaders, and the local New London community. We held voting stations for residents to decide which designs they liked best, and kept iterating based on those recommendations so that the community could see their impact in co-designing the final logo. This logo should represent them and be influenced by them, since EDIBLE New London is, itself, a grassroots, community driven movement for urban agriculture.

We decided on the beet for several reasons. Firstly, it ranked highest in community votes from the “Soups and Signs” event. It’s also easy to read at different scales, making it ideal for a logo that will be put on T-shirts as well as at the bottom of pamphlets and emails. It’s vector, which means it can change sizes without losing image quality and translates well on both digital and print mediums. The beet also speaks to edible part of EDIBLE New London, clearly showing the sustainable ideology that New London is growing towards. The NL inside the beet also shows how the urban agriculture will grow from New London itself with New London community as the seed to start the process.

I made two designs for the final iteration: a large format one and a small format one so that the letters are visible and aren’t overpowered by the beet even on a small scale. I also lightened the green so that it was more distinguishable when printed.

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EDIBLE New London Event: “Soups and Signs” The “Soups and Signs” event was a community gathering organized by FRESH New London to eat donated soups together and sell FRESH posters and T-shirts. Leading up to this event, I designed an EDIBLE New London poster that combined a couple of the logo ideas we were working with (the beet and the city). This design was screen printed onto posters and was sold along with the FRESH merchandise to work with the community and get their input on the branding of EDIBLE New London. It was also a good way to gage public interest in EDIBLE New London. The local residents felt that the poster was recognizable and represented their city and the way they feel about the agricultural movement that is spreading through the city. They liked the way the beet was taking over the city from the inside out and how that showed the community’s role in the transformation of New London.

Through this event, I was also able to get feedback on the logos by sitting and eating with the people who attended the event, discussing the project and listening to their ideas on it, and asking them for input on the logo designs through voting stations.

The poster design was selected to be in a collaborative art exhibition at the Hygenic Art Gallery in New London.

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Challenge

Design Strategy

Design a poster version of the logo that incorporates the beet and New London skyline into one image. This will only be viewed in a large format context as the front of pamphlets or on T-shirts and posters. It should be possible to screen print the logo.

In combining the two images of the beet and the New London skyline, I wanted to focus on maintaining graphic simplicity and readability. It should also stay within the brand identity I’d been creating with FRESH for EDIBLE New London. I worked closely with FRESH New London with this design to ensure it reflected how the public would interact with EDIBLE New London.

EDIBLE

New London Engagement

Outcome

After iterating and refining the design at my weekly meetings with FRESH New London, the final design was screen printed onto posters and sold at the community event: “Soups and Signs” hosted by FRESH New London at All Souls Church. At the event I got feedback from the community about the poster design and had a voting station to help decide on the final logo for the EDIBLE New London brand identity.

We ended up with a screen printed poster sold at FRESH’s “Soups and Signs” event which was received very positively by the New London residents. They liked the imagery of the beet taking over the city from the inside out, showing that it was the people, not the city, that could start this agricultural movement. They were welcoming, excited to hear about the project and gave invaluable input to help co-design the logo.

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New London residents using stickers to rank their first, second and third choices for the EDIBLE New London logo at the Soups and Signs event.

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EDIBLE New London: Community Website The website is a digital space for EDIBLE New London to exist, giving it a larger outreach. Because EDIBLE New London is so community based, it needed to be a website that still involved and created community. The final website is a growing and morphing platform that will continue to adapt to local needs. As of now, it can be accessed by search or by QR code activations on many EDIBLE New London outreach products. It explains what EDIBLE New London is, the sites involved and directions for getting to them, recipes provided by community members (and a link to join the NL Recipe Exchange community on facebook), and opportunities to get more involved with the organization through email or social media to stay updated on events.

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Challenge

Design Strategy

Create the UX and UI design for the EDIBLE New London website in keeping with the existing brand identity through website-creator Wix. The website should be informational on what EDIBLE New London is and interactive so the community can take ownership of it and feel like they belong to a digital EDIBLE New London community.

Most of the engagement for the EDIBLE New London website was targeted at a mobile audience who would access the site by QR code activations. In light of this, I wanted to tailor the website towards a phone layout which is also more accessible to the community. The content needed to reflect EDIBLE New London’s two main focuses: urban agriculture and community.

Engagement

Outcome

The community is represented both within the website itself and as the target audience. In terms of outreach, the website is attached to EDIBLE New London activations such as the “Seed Pops� (see page 31) where it features on the back as a way of getting involved with EDIBLE New London and as a way of getting more information.

Within the website, there are more opportunities for community engagement through email or social media.

The website exists as a digital way for the New London community to get more information and more involved with EDIBLE New London and with each other. The QR code on EDIBLE New London merchandise has been heavily used as a way of accessing the site and many people have enjoyed this new and fun way of bringing the digital into the physical world.

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Scan the QR code using your phone camera then tap the link to connect to the EDIBLE New London homepage.

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Use the menu to find maps and directions to each EDIBLE New London site, recipes from the community, food justice tips and connect with social media to stay up-todate on all upcoming events.

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EDIBLE New London Installation: “Our Picnic” “Our Picnic” encourages community engagement on multiple levels, both physical and digital. On the physical side, the installation interrupts typical gallery space by providing a community area which encourages table conversations. It embodies the welcoming nature of EDIBLE New London and the people involved to provide space for the same co-creation and relationship building within a gallery. On the digital side, “Our Picnic” connects to the EDIBLE New London website to provide context for the project and enable connectivity directly with EDIBLE New London and the people who represent it. The website provides ways to get more involved with EDIBLE New London and social media communities to join and stay informed on new events (see page 23 for more information on the EDIBLE New London website).

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Challenge

Design Strategy

Create an interactive installation that presents EDIBLE New London to a new audience. The installation should show the community aspects of the project and explain clearly what EDIBLE New London represents, who is involved, and where it exists.

I wanted the installation to be interactive and create its own space to embody the same sense of community that EDIBLE New London does itself. To do this, I used a community picnic table, something that already exists in several EDIBLE New London sites. I used mismatched plates to get a cobbled together appearance which I printed the EDIBLE New London logo and QR code on to link to the website and give the project context.

Engagement

Outcome

Since the picnic table is in a gallery, it’s a different type of engagement than most of the other EDIBLE New London projects. The engagement, in this case, is about starting conversations and enabling community within a fine arts setting. The plates also serve as a model for what could be provided at future EDIBLE New London events.

“Our Picnic” is a multidimensional exhibition piece that layers physical community space with digital community space. The physical space encourages table conversations and new relationships between gallery– goers while the digital space provides context for the project and invites community involvement through emailing EDIBLE New London representative or EDIBLE New London related joining social media communities.

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People at the gallery sit and scan the plate QR codes at the “Our Picninc� installation.

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EDIBLE New London Events: “Seed Pops” at FRESH New London The “Seed Pops” were an opportunity to engage with the community in a way that started a conversation and gave people a physical take-away to remember and learn about EDIBLE New London. I designed the “Seed Pops” to be multi-functional for maximum engagement.

For the “edible” part of EDIBLE New London, they had a growing element which was the beet seeds which people were able to pop out and plant. They also had several layers of information to provide context about EDIBLE New London, the sites involved, and a QR code linking to the website for more information. It was important to include a fun element for the “Seed Pops” too, so I printed them onto stickers attached to popsicle sticks which could be used to mark the beets in a garden or taken apart and stuck onto a water bottle.

The Seed Pops were introduced at two different events organized by FRESH New London: the “Food Justice Workshop” and the “Early Plant Sale”. The workshop was a smaller setting, so I had longer conversations with community members about the project and their views on food justice. The plant sale was fast paced with a high level of participation. It was helpful to have the “Seed Pops” in both environments for breadth and depth when working with the community.

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Challenge

Design Strategy

Spread the imagery and message of EDIBLE New London to the community in an open and welcoming way so engage with the project and can take ownership of it through co-creation.

I created “Seed Pops”. There were five different types of seed pops, all representing a different community garden site associated with EDIBLE New London and printed on stickers. On the back, there was information about the site shown and about the EDIBLE New London project, complete with a QR code that linked to the website. In the top corner there were also beet seeds which could be popped out of the sticker and planted.

Engagement

Outcome

I brought the seed pops to two different FRESH New London–organized events to share with the community.

The first event was the “Food Justice Workshop”. Since this was a small group, I was able to speak with local residents one-on-one to get feedback on the “Seed Pops” and discuss EDIBLE New London. The second event was the “Early Plant Sale”. I had very high engagement at this event and there was excitement about learning more and planting the beet seeds.

I distributed over 40 Seed Pops and had individual conversations with everyone who came to take a “Seed Pop”. I was able to learn about what local community members think are issues with the food system in New London and had the opportunity to discuss EDIBLE New London and the goals for urban agriculture with residents who were directly impacted by the community gardens associated with the project.

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New London residents picked Seed Pops at the “Early Plant Sale”.

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Community member scanning the QR code on the back of a “Seed Pop” at the Food Justice Workshop.

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Thank you to everyone involved and please reach out through the website to learn more and get to know this incredible community.