You’re looking at a prototype of our stools for the restaurant. Ignore the blue, that’s just tape. We’re really excited about these. There simple, shockingly strong and durable, and not going to cost much.
Read on to learn more about the development
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Barth from Barrington Roasters gave me some of these coffee sacks the other day. They’re sort of a waste product in their business. These are the sacks the green beans arrive in.
I was pretty excited about it. The sack is actually the sack our coffee, the stuff we serve you, comes in. And I love this kind of thing, I’m always trying to figure out how to re-use cheap things (e.g., milk-crates) and save money that I can spend on better food for you all.
This sack had me puzzled though, didn’t know what to do with it. Then it came to me, these sacks are the perfect protectors for our new whiteboard signs. These are special signs, some sort of enameled metal. They tell me they will not show “ghosting” as the previous ones did. We’ll see. But they do scratch, and what better than a perfectly sized burlap sack to protect them?
Two of these were sitting in Toscanini’s window the other day. Rolando and I were stopped in our tracks. That’s a lot of raspberries. Aren’t they beautiful? My cell phone picture isn’t the best, but wow, you get the idea.
You may not all realize how unusual this sort of thing is for foodservice. There are fresh, not frozen.
Here’s hoping Gus moves more of his ingredients and prep closer to that big window on the sidewalk so that we can all see what’s going on.
Our sandwich boards are getting a bit ratty aren’t they? I need to find a more durable solution.
That said, we really don’t want them to look like the example on the left above, or like anything that would ever be anywhere near a Starbuck’s. Don’t get me wrong, I’d really like them to be cleaner than they are.
That said, I’m very proud that we write on our boards daily. They’re far from perfect, some have even complained about my handwriting. But they reflect where we are on a day to day basis. That’s the timescale on which our food is made, that’s the timescale our communications should obey.
There’s an IAP design class at MIT that’s working with Clover for one of their projects. I’m hoping it’s going to be their most memorable project of the class. But I’m not doing a great job so far. I didn’t promote the class last week (TLC edged them out), and I was late for our first meeting today. I’d gotten held up at the bank, more on that later.
Our goals for packaging are simple: least negative impact to the environment while delivering a quality experience to customers. Secondarily we’re focused on aesthetics of course.
So I thought I’d post here a quick overview of the packaging we’ve used to date, with some comments. Those who read us often know:
(a) We’re excited about the idea of eliminating trash cans from our restaurants and moving to 100% compostable packaging
(b) I’m skeptical about the environmental benefits of re-usable packaging
Keep reading after the break if you’re interested in more detail about who we’ve worked with to date:
We pride ourselves on cleanliness, but it appears we screw that up occasionally.
This tomato plant and flat leaf parsley have taken root at our loading dock. Pretty amazing. Little seeds from our tomatoes became lodged between the parking lot and brick wall and now we see the beginings of tomatoes.
I’ve noticed several tomato plants around the truck at 20 Carleton as well. Likely our doing. Just amazing, hunh?
The entry to the truck hasn’t been our highest priority. And while the working space of the truck is polished clean every single day, I’ve neglected the entry-well.
So this weekend I tore out the nasty rubber mat, cleaned it up nicely, and cut up a little astro turf. I think it’ll play a functional role (clean our feet), and supposedly it’s easy to clean/ maintain with a hose. We’ll see.
Now I just need to get some aluminum polish and go at that battery access panel with the streaks in the picture. It’s ending : )
So we’re on the way to looking professional. Now that Clover has a logo we’re ready to start putting it on stuff. First you’ll see it on shirts and hats, then the truck, and someday our own packaging.
I’ve got a bunch of ideas I’m really excited about for the T-shirts. We’re going to make them in small batches, all limited edition. So for this first edition we’re making 50. They are all organic cotton. Many are already spoken for (Blue and Clementine are both getting shirts). The crew will be wearing them (which is why the logo is large on the back). We’ll sell a few. Here’s the cool thing: when they sell out that’s it. The next next edition will look different. We’re going to have artists design each edition. And when each sells out that will be it. We will only print each edition once.
So my vision is that we’ll have all of these fantastic interpretations of the Clover brand, as understood by diverse artists, being worn by folks. It’s going to be great. And we’re going to give the artists a ton of freedom. This is one of the reasons we ended up with a logo that’s like a stencil. Super simple logo = lots of fun to be had.
Found this at the local library while playing with Clementine. Playmobile’s version of a clover. Sort of fun, hunh? See, you get a 4 leaf, a 3 leaf, and the flower in there…
Brooke got some shoes for Christmas that came in this awesome box. I think it’s just great.
Brooke (my wife) knits. She bought these stitch counters the other day, some Japanese company called Clover.
We’re still working on the logo. At this point I’m just really eager to order some cups for the coffee, and can’t get that done until this is figured out. Good news is that I think I’m getting a clear sense of where it needs to end up. Now I just need to find someone to help get there.
The process with Hester just wasn’t working. I amicably called it off yesterday. Now I’m getting into this myself. There are sketches like this on envelopes, etc. everywhere (these are Brooke’s).
I saw this sticker in Central. Great hunh? I’ve really got to figure out our logo. It’s not going to look anything like this, but I hope it has some of the originality that draws me to this sticker.
It’s no secret that my counter tops take their inspiration from Northampton Coffee. I love that place, and in part the level of care and energy that went into creating an environment that reflects the spirit of the place. Example: no art on the walls because the coffee is meant to be the art.
Researching their counters brought me to the furthest corner of Massachusetts on a cold wet day. I wanted large, thick, rough-edged, local wood. I found two beautiful slabs of red oak, both from New England. I fell in love, wrote a check for a very reasonable sum (I think it was $140 for one, and $160 for the other), strapped them to my car, and I was off. (more pictures after the break)
Josh has been playing with lettering options. Working from the lettering on the side of the truck, and seeing whether something like that would work for the logo for the truck. I like above. Not sure it’s right for the truck. I like that it reflects what other trucks typically do, that it relates to my early days with this adventure. But I’m afraid it might not be appetizing, and folks I respect don’t like it at all.
What do you think? Gallery with more after the break.
Josh has been hard at work. Find more examples after the break.
I’m liking some of these. All are sketches, but I think the direction is interesting. That said, the flask isn’t everyone’s favorite (see last post).
And I have ringing in the back of my head Erik’s encouragement to keep the logo as simple as possible.
This was McDonald’s logo, until 1962. Isn’t that amazing.
I’ve been having some great back-and-forths on the brand with Brian and Erik. Both have 2 clear messages:
(a) Nix the flask
(b) Make both logos (truck and restaurant) the same
I’m thinking hard about these points, trying to decide what might be the best path forward. For one, I’m just not sure we could develop the final restaurant logo in time for the truck launch, as a practical consideration. But perhaps more importantly, I’ve been of the mind that the truck and restaurant should be related but separate identities. Mostly I’ve been telling myself that this is necessary because the experience and expectations for the two must be so different. But in light of above, I’ve been thinking hard about the approach that has both identities the same.
Hester is working on sketches and directions for the Food Truck logo. Follow after the break to check out the sketches.
OK, this process is getting serious, and it deserves a proper timeline. And here is how the collaboration/ works is going to flow:
- Joshua and I are going to iterate logo sketches, direction, final
- Brian will play a creative director role
- The broader group (Erik, Rick, Dan) will help us with their ideas/ involvement
- Everyone is welcome to leave comments, or even post under this tag: Visual Identity (if you want to post just email me and I’ll set you up)
This is going to be a ton of fun and I think we’ll get to great results. Since the first step (logo for the Food Lab) is on such a tight schedule, it is likely it will benefit from less back-and-forth with the group than would be ideal.
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