Fireweed Food Co-op (formerly known as Farm Fresh Food Hub) is a nonprofit co-op for producers and supporters of Manitoba-grown sustainably produced food. As a co-operative for both food consumers and producers, Fireweed is dedicated to creating a larger, more stable market for locally and sustainably produced food in the region, and to making good food more accessible to more individuals, families and community as a whole. It does this work through two projects - the Food Hub and the South Osborne Farmer's Market.
I was approached by Farm Fresh to do an overhaul of the Co-Op brand and create new branding principles to guide staff and volunteers to create graphics for each of its of projects. The project took an unusual turn midway through the brand overhaul process when the organization suddenly discovered it would need to rename itself for legal reasons, which also necessitated a last minute logo change.
As the umbrella organization, the Co-Op needed to look and feel connected to its projects, but the projects needed to look distinct. This is difficult given the Co-op's shoestring budget--with no dedicated communications staff, visuals are prepared on the fly and often by volunteers. Using primarily social media, the Co-Ops' two projects hosted events - seminars, workshops, markets, discussion groups, annual general meetings - and marketed products - veggie boxes, food goods, food subscriptions. The list of kinds of materials they made was endless and complex.
As the umbrella organization, the Co-Op needed to look and feel connected to its projects, but the projects needed to look distinct. This is difficult given the Co-op's shoestring budget--with no dedicated communications staff, visuals are prepared on the fly and often by volunteers. Using primarily social media, the Co-Ops' two primary project organizations--the Food Hub and South Osborne Farmer's Market--hosted events - seminars, workshops, markets, discussion groups, annual general meetings. They also on occasion marketed products - veggie boxes, food goods, food subscriptions. The kinds of materials they were making varied greatly and evolved continuously.
The clients also asked me to produce a handful of actual, real, for-actual-use documents to get the organization started on the new brand that could be built off of by volunteers in conjunction with the branding guide.
After completing the branding guide, I had some doubts about the amount of typefaces I had suggested and about the practicality of a font flow chart. However, the value of having more options has proven itself in the long run.
Though COVID would drastically curb the new for printed materials and posters, staff and volunteers have created dozens and dozens of social media graphics. Limited as always by resources, time, and a lack of communications staff, the new branding guidelines have nonetheless resulted overall in dramatically increased brand cohesion across their materials, allowing volunteers and occasional contractors to work in a common visual sandbox.
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