Under Alex Quinto, my studio brief was to investigate a problem that affects all three countries in North America. From this broad starting point, I began to first look at NAFTA and to get a sense of how well it was working for North American citizens. More troubling information came to the forefront about farmers’ issues and exploitation of migrant workers.
As my research uncovered more problems with the food chain through North America and the tangential issues of border control, genetically modified foods, and the rising battle of corn for food vs. corn for fuel, the task became to find a design solution to this wealth of problems.
But how could I address an issue this large? What can graphic design do to make an impact on the lives of underpaid migrant workers? Can we reduce the length that food travels?
I decided to focus on something positive — homegrown, fresh food. No one can argue with the goodness of a seasonal tomato.
Part of my strategy was to investigate environments such as large food retailers, boutique grocers and the farmers market. I surveyed people all over the country to figure out what they value in the foods that they purchase. I worked on developing a brand identity for local foods based on these consumer profiles.
I also visited a farm, where I was able to talk directly to a food producer to find out more about the organic/local debate and what challenges the farmer faces with subsidized agriculture and federal restrictions.
I developed ideas on a systems scale that explored incentive systems in average grocery stores to encourage buying local. The idea of this system was that it could be transported to any North American city and used to evaluate (and reduce) the eco-footprint of food consumption.
