The majority of the food we consume travels 1,500 miles on average before we eat it. There are abundant sources of locally produced food in urban areas. Only a small percentage of people are supporting this local food system.
Currently there is nothing that unifies the growing network of local food producers. Our plan is to implement a simple set of graphics to give local agriculture its own identity that consumers will easily recognize.
(this is a group collaboration including Matt Braun, Elise Chepurny, Candra Provenzano and the staff at GreensGrow Farms and Mill Creek Farms.)
Our final ads and informational front gate sign for Mill Creek.
Jade and Jo have not seen the finished signs yet but hopefully they will like them just as much or even more then they liked our first prototype they saw, “okra here”. Now that the final Mill Creek and Greengrow signs are done I think they speak the same language even though they are different in their own ways, but that’s what makes them unique for each farm. Now we get to physically see the simalirities and differences.
This was one of our ideas for a way to show our graphics. Mill Creek Farm inspired this idea because they had no money for large prints. So why not do it yourself? They have many volunteers, many of whom are children, who I would think would love to paint large pictures of fruits and vegtables. It would be a way to get the community involved and when the signs are done, help promote the farm. Since it is using the same graphics system it would also link the farm with the other urban farms using the same graphics. This is one of the options on our graph.
What we need to do for our final models and presentation is unify the different ways of displaying our graphics better. By having our graph best explain each different way, whether it be a small community urban garden or an established urban farm, whether you have 10 dollars or 100 dollars to spend, you can obtain a system of our graphics to unify your farm and link it with urban farming. Our graphic system has multiple options that you can choose and incorporate your own information into, like web site, address, logo…..whatever you want. This is what we need to strongly show. This is what we have so far.
These are are final prototypes for Mill Creek Farm. We used the same triangular shapes as we used for Greensgrow’s prototypes, except for the informational sign that Mill Creek requested we also do. Their main goal is spreading their knowledge, what they do, and getting the community involved and eating better food. The info sign uses the logo on the top that they already have. What we have learned is that the triangular shapes of these signs are branding in its self sort of acting like arrows saying “heres where the foods at,” adding more power to our original branding of “Here.” It dosent really matter what shape, material, or color the signs are, they will all still be unified from our “Here.” graphics.
We had the semi-final round of presentations today for this FarmPhilly project. We do have some content to add and editing to do before we submit the final on monday 
Our project aims to allow urban farms all over Philadelphia to join in a collective campaign of advertisements for their individual farm, while also representing urban farming as whole. During this process we have been working with both Mill Creek Farm and Greens Grow Farm. Both of these organizations represent urban farming but they do it in opposing manners. Mill Creek is all about advertising healthier food options to their community and Greens Grow is more about advertising green in the neighborhood and themselves as an establishment. A couple of weeks ago our group posted a graph which illustrated how farms all across Philly can choose a way of promoting what they want and how they want while still broadcasting to people the concept of urban farming in general. Go green power.
This concept might be easy for fellow designers to follow, but to cater to the members of these farms we thought that it would be appropriate to explain this system as a parallel concept to cell phone plans. One farm might want the family plan that includes texting and web access, while another farm might be more interested in a pay-as-you-go plan. The main concept being that both these plans are under the same network.
VS. 
Our newest poster concept was a series of triangles to be set up on the inside of greens grow. This would allow people to see the graphics clearly and keep vandalism (which is a main concern) to a minimum. However, when these freshly made posters got attached to the fences at Greens Grow the wind ripped them down. Pointing out to us a huge weak point in our design.
Before, During, and After.
*Better sooner then later, back to the drawing board!
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As a member of the Information chapter of Farm Philly I feel that it is appropriate to post about farm topics in the media. Oscilloscope Laboratories and Magnolia Pictures have both produced many interesting films, some are right on target with what this semester long project is about. Here are three documentaries trailers that i feel everyone working on this project should watch.
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1. ”The Garden”
2. ”Flow”
3. ”Food, INC.”