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West Seattle
Food Bank

visual design

a brand re-design for a local non-profit with a goal of revamping their current visual systems and visually portraying their community goals.

West Seattle Food Bank logo placed on a canvas tote bag

overview

team

Monica Ionescu

I was tasked with revamping and rebranding the current visual system of a local non-profit. My goal, through research, was to create a system that helped capture the goals and vision of the organization. During this time, I redesigned the logo + iconography, created a new color scheme, established a brand typeface use, and applied these principles towards everyday interactions and objects.

made for

Fun :)

Non-profit group

my role

Visual Designer

when

5 weeks

Spring 2020

How can I redesign the West Seattle Food Bank's brand to showcase its goals and vision as an organization?

research

Organization's Goals

Current Visual System

By going through the website, I found that the organization wanted to focus on community, health, and safety by increasing access to resources. 

The current state of the visual brand was a bit overwhelming. There is a lot of bright colors, yet they are on target for color scheme as the choices do align with food, health, (green) and passion (red). The main page also bombards the user with information and photos, crowding the page. However, they did have some strong hierarchy at the top and clear icons (though they are unrelated to the task). 

Screen Shot 2022-06-13 at 8.42.42 PM-modified.png
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Screen Shot 2022-06-13 at 8.37.18 PM.png

Screen grab of the current WSFB homepage. 

Current WSFB logo.

Current WSFB color palette.

Screen Shot 2022-06-13 at 8.44_edited.jpg
Screen Shot 2022-06-13 at 8.44_edited.jpg
Screen Shot 2022-06-13 at 8.44_edited.jpg
Screen Shot 2022-06-13 at 8.44_edited.jpg
Screen Shot 2022-06-13 at 8.44_edited.jpg
Screen Shot 2022-06-13 at 8.44_edited.jpg

new visual system

Typeface

For the headings, I chose a chunkier, smooth font that has a retro feel in order to exemplify how long WSFB has been helping the community. For the bulk of the text, I chose a narrow, modern font that had rounded ends. This would maintain the soft, caring feel of the brand while hinting at its current involvement in community and progress as an organization.

header

Squada
One

ABCDEFGHIJKLM

NOPQRSTUVWXYZ

abcdefghijklm

nopqrstuvwxyz

0123456789+!@*()”:?

sub-header

Quicksand Bold

ABCDEFGHIJKLM

NOPQRSTUVWXYZ

abcdefghijklm

nopqrstuvwxyz

0123456789+!@*()”:?

body

Quicksand Medium

ABCDEFGHIJKLM

NOPQRSTUVWXYZ

abcdefghijklm

nopqrstuvwxyz

0123456789+!@*()”:?

captions

Quicksand Light

ABCDEFGHIJKLM

NOPQRSTUVWXYZ

abcdefghijklm

nopqrstuvwxyz

0123456789+!@*()”:?

Color Palette

I chose red and green as my main colors in order to maintain a connection to the original design and because I thought they related well to the mission. Green embodies food and health and red evokes passion. I decided to choose both a dark and light version of the green/red. The light green would be used the most as a highlighting color. The dark red is meant to be used for titles and important information. The other two should be used scarcely as accents.

olive green circle

dark green

hex: 476338
rgb: 71, 99, 56

dark orange circle

dark red/orange

hex: bc4227
rgb: 188, 66, 39

light green

hex: cacea9
rgb: 202, 206, 169

burnt orange

hex: d06029
rgb: 208, 106, 41

light sage green circle
burnt orange circle

iconography

Logo

Because of the focus on the community, donations, and health, I decided to design my logo based on those principles. The hands are extending towards, in an act of care and donation. The orange carrot stands out and emphasizes the food and health aspect. The lines are all softened and thick, yet the logo is a bit playful and drawn as a way to further soften the feel. ​

Two hands hold a carrot. The image is repeated a total of 6 times in a 3x2 grid with varying colors; dark green, dark red, burnt orange.
Two hands come together to hold a carrot. Text to the right reads "west seattle food bank." A smaller version of the hands lies in the top right corner.
west
seattle

Iconography

Because of the focus on the community, donations, and health, I decided to design my logo based on those principles. The hands are extending towards, in an act of care and donation. The orange carrot stands out and emphasizes the food and health aspect. The lines are all softened and thick, yet the logo is a bit playful and drawn as a way to further soften the feel. ​

From left to right, a hand is shown flat/raised, a hand is dropping money, a hand is upheld towards a carrot

"take action"

"donate funds"

"get food"

in practice

Mobile Flow

During my research, I found myself being overwhelmed when on the site. I also learned that there was a large increase in the at-home delivery service due to COVID-19. Together, this led me to focus my mobile flow on simplifying the home page and easing the user's access to information on their services. 

The redesign included a carousel that housed all of the main actions taken on the site. The number of images was also decreased significantly. Information was neatly organized and could be found through clear buttons and hierarchy. 

Three phone screens showing the following, from left to right: a "take action" button, a "get food" button, and an hours of operation page

Merchandise

Here are some examples of how the design should transfer across products. 

Business card for an employee of the West Seattle Food Bank
West Seattle Food Bank logo placed on a canvas tote bag
Lanyard and badge for an employee of the West Seattle Food Bank

reflection

While I feel like my skills as a designer increased over the course of this project, there are many things I would redo. Mostly, I would have looked into more theory about color and font choices, as I didn't really understand how strongly these could relay a message. 

I would have also liked to spend more time looking at mobile applications and understanding interactive design. Overall, I feel as though my design is a little too childish (playful, drawn, colorful) for the organization, but this also hopefully adds to the overall charm. 

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