Everything will be different tomorrow
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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…
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).
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.
So this is still a stand-in for the real logo for the food lab, but I’m sort of digging the lettering on the truck. John Hong (SSD) was commenting on how it’s sort of a neat effect, and I think I’m liking it too. Possible direction for the type for the food lab?
I like that it is the result of something authentic (I didn’t set out to make these letters look fancy, or pretty, or anything really, just needed to get them on the truck), the history syncs with the truck’s purpose and meaning (this is a lab, not perfection). And I like that they reflect the process (I wasn’t too careful), and are non-computer-y. A big criticism of many fonts is that they are too sharp, too perfect.
What do you think of this for the side of the truck? Comments welcome.
Here’s an older one. This image dates to the day after I first thought of the food lab idea:
Here’s an excerpt from a recent back and forth with Erik Joule (Erik, hope you don’t mind me posting this). Iteration on the “manifesto.”
Clover needs to focus on building a relationship with its audience through its product, its spaces and the way it communicates.
Brian Collins gave me some homework:
We all know we should eat more vegetables, so why don’t we? We know we would be healthier, have more energy, and maybe even live longer. We know we’d be combating global warming. And we know farmers in our communities grow fantastic vegetables. And what’s more, most of us aspire to eat more vegetables. So why don’t we?
Clover will be the “how.” Clover will be how people get fresh vegetables, seasonal vegetables. Service will be prompt, and the food always just cut. Prices will be affordable. Clover will be how folks learn more about their local growers. It’ll be a place where people feel comfortable. Clover will be a place of trust. Clover will enable people to fall in love with vegetables again, or for the first time.
By helping people to understand that eating can mean something, Clover will become a hub for an emerging movement. This movement doesn’t yet have a name, but is clearly starting to simmer. It’s about real and uncomplicated food that tastes fantastic. This movement is about moving beyond false trade-offs and taking action that is fun, feels great, is good for the environment, good for your health, and good for your neighbors.
And if this all works, we’ll be living in an America that in 20 years provides a dietary example for the world of which we can all be proud. We’ll be conquering obesity, tackling diabetes, beating heart disease, measuring a sharp reduction in cancer rates. Our food-related carbon footprint will be cut in half. And we’ll be surrounded by vibrant networks of local and regional farms that deliver fantastic fresh healthy food. Our Clover fruit juice cups will be empty, and we’ll be smiling.
Moving away from graphic references to designing the space, here are some thought I’ve had about the feelings I’m looking to evoke. I’m really excited about the truck design, because I think a ton of this will come through thanks to John and Jinhee and everyone else helping make it happen. You should expect to see more of these themes pop up in the restaurants (perhaps in a different version).
This is the area I’m weakest on right now. Thankfully I have some great typographers helping me through this process. Check out Hester’s all-type video on youtube:
My ideas for texture flow from the aspirations for the brand. Like nature, textures found in Clover should reveal a history. Note the process marks on the potato print. You can see where the ink lay down in the printing process.
Note the patterns of the Clover flower and leaves. They are ordered, but not perfectly ordered. In my previous life we’d call a material exhibiting these characteristics a “quasi-crystal.”
During one of my early conversations with Erik Joule he asked: “what will Clover sound like?” I thought it was a great question and spent a bunch of time thinking it through. For a while I was thinking country/bluegrass-influenced contemporary music (I was liking some country and the latest Black Keys album at the time).
And while I think that sound would be a fantastic landscape for what we’re trying to achieve, Brian Collins had a better idea: local music. This is a really exciting idea. As an undergrad at MIT I worked at the radio station and there was this big book with all the shows in the Boston are every night. You could write your name in for a show and you would be on the guest list. Just like that. It was fantastic, and I found myself going to 2-3 shows per week.
I’ve started listening and talking to folks, and I think we’ll come up with some great local music. And with luck you’ll discover something you love that’s being created around the block from where you live. And as this concept builds I’ll have the pleasure of finding myself intimately involved with the local music scenes in great cities across the country.
I scribbled down my goals for the brand a few months ago. Here they are:
Alex Kazaks gets credit for the name. Asa (my sister) made a puppet for Clementine, a horse, and had named the puppet Clover. Alex said, hey, how about that for a name for the restaurant. We all liked it, I tested it, and here we are. Why did we like it? Here are my top reasons:
(painting is by Vilhelm Hammershoi, a danish painter from the early 1900s)
So this is where the visual identity for Clover begins: a puddle of sunlight.
A place you want to move towards/ sit under. When people think of it they want to take a deep breath through their nose, the creases around their eyes relax a little, they drift away for an instant: surrounded by a warmth of satisfaction, more things are possible, life feels more real.
Clean, clear warmth
Not orange/ red warmth
Nature-aware
Not “crunchy”
Forward looking, contemporary
Not post-modern (slick, self-referential, jaded)
Comfortable, welcoming
Funny, but conscientious and smart
Not condescending, never self-involved
Discover new things
Not lecture
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