A few months ago I was hired by Eat Well Market to create the overall brand identity for the L.A. farmers market. Since this was a new market that hadn’t yet opened, the project started with a completely blank slate. After a number of conversations with the Eat Well Market team, we had agreed that the brand needed to have a clean and friendly appeal – one that would encourage people to eat well and invoke a sense of community. With almost complete artistic freedom and the opportunity to build a brand from the ground up, I was extremely excited to get started on this project.

The Logo

After a few lengthy discussions with the client and a solid design brief in hand, it was time to get going on the logo design. I started out drawing a mind-map and linking all kinds of words related to farms, fresh food, community, and eating. Some intense brainstorming and a page full of vaguely related words set me up for the initial concept sketches. It was clear from the beginning that the logo needed to include some kind of fruit or vegetable. I also knew that I wanted to tie in a reference to community and togetherness into the logo.

Some of the early sketches featured old wooden boards, banners, vegetable bouquets, peas, and growing plants. I brought my strongest concepts to life on the computer for further exploration, and then sent the top four to the client for feedback. After some discussion, it became clear as to which logo concept we were going to move forward with.

The final logo mark was chosen because of its friendly appeal and unique demonstration of closeness, with the apple, jalapeno, and orange all being a part of one another. For example, the circle from the orange flows straight into the bottom of the apple and curving pepper, while the leaf from the apple also represents an orange seed. Another appealing aspect of the current mark is its ability to be used across a variety of applications.

Typography

With the logo mark finalized, it was time to match the perfect typography. To both compliment the rounded strokes of the mark and to help give the logo an inviting feel, I knew that the main typeface needed to have soft edges. Easy on the eyes and a rounded-slab serif style, ‘Classic Round’ was the perfect match.

While ‘Classic Round’ was used in the logo type, I needed to find a range of complimentary typefaces for the next phase of the project, which happened to be the poster design.

The Poster

I was informed that the poster advertising the market was going to be mostly text based, and that it needed to look good in black and white, as this is was the team’s plan for printing. I like a good challenge, and since working with typography is one of the most enjoyable aspects of design for me, I was eager to move forward with the poster design.

With a nice range of fonts selected and the copy for the poster in hand, I got to work. It quickly became clear that something was needed to break up the text-heavy feel of the poster. I decided it was best to separate the text into sections and create some small icons for more visual appeal. When coupled with the selected fonts, this proved effective and allowed the poster to be both easy to digest up close and quickly scanned for important details from a distance.

Finishing Up

Overall, this was an extremely successful project, with both the client and myself being satisfied with the end results. Although the project did have the tightest deadlines that I have worked with, it ended up being one of the most enjoyable and rewarding projects of my carrer. I can attribute this to the artistic freedom I was given, the close communication with the Eat Well Market team, and the fact that the design was for something I strongly believe in – eating organically grown local food.

Also, as a huge fan of farmers markets, I was happy to hear that the first ever Eat Well Market was a great success. I look forward to working with the market on their future design needs.

A Word From the Client:

“I cannot recommend Dan highly enough. He is one of the most gifted designers I have ever hired. We needed a website, logo, and posters built quickly – the results he created for us far exceeded our expectations. The first word out of almost everyone’s mouth when they see the website he designed for us is “wow”. And he has a special talent for translating whatever feeling you are trying to convey into the right typography and logo. We just couldn’t be more pleased.”

– Aimee S. // Eat Well Market