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

Everything will be different tomorrow
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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
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?
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?
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.
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:
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