The Rooted Journal — exploring regenerative farming through elevated thinking and stories rooted in food and the future — is published by Elevated Foods and supported by a grant from the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. Forest partnered with publisher @austinbrown__ and Editor-in-chief and longtime collaborator @dustinbeatty to bring this idea to life, extending the impact of the grant into a bi-yearly publication and online media channel. It felt like a fortuitous culmination of all of our editorial experience in the past twenty years, bringing together a hopeful vision of an aspect of the world through our network of writers, photographers, artists, and most importantly, the farmers working and providing the food that we all depend on.
We knew illustration would play a very important component in the structure of the magazine, and the art direction and design of the feature well began to personalize itself around it, with headlines and typography sharing space or even fighting with it in order to convey the nature of the story. Equal to this was the photography, as we intentionally set a large 9″ x 12″ format in order to allow the proper space for it, incorporating both high quality commissioned work and archival items from the subjects themselves. It should be obvious how much we love grids, and in this case it is rigid yet malleable, with room to breathe or collapse and press against itself, always aligned with what the story is striving to tell.
Standardizing the front and back of book content, which included the shorter-form section we named Sprout — ideas, inspiration, and community stories from those with dirty boots on the ground who are dedicated to doing good — and setting up collaborations with our network of writers, artists, and photographers. Like @juliastotz , who’s beautiful still life work with prop stylist @truthless_k became a regular addition. Or @hh_infographics , who illustrated all of the details about how to compost, and how food moves throughout the world before we eat it. The final page presented an opportunity for us to represent some eye-opening data in a graphic format.
Each issue is based around a theme — pantry, rice & beans, spices, and enclaves so far — so we started assigning a color and implementing a new typeface each time, allowing the design language to grow and evolve while still retaining its overall structure. The magazine itself is printed on thick, uncoated paper and spiral bound — using that issues unique color, of course — an ode to old recipe books that allow you to stand the pages up while you try out a new recipe in the kitchen. The design is bright, loud and colorful!
Every feature is unique, containing a voice all its own, while still remaining connected to the visual thread that is Synonym. It is rare as a designer to contribute to a project that you absolutely believe in, yet this is one of them. A project that wholeheartedly stands in opposition to those that wish to divide and invoke fear in the diaspora and all of the wonder it contains. A project that refuses to accept any desire to be complacent during this terrifying time — one fueled by a colonialist ideology that destroys so many lives, and puts at risk even the very idea of sharing the universal language that is food.
Synonym Magazine was started by @carolinekhwang as an idea to share recipes shaped by location and movement, specifically through the global immigrant diaspora and third culture population. It has quickly grown to spotlight how trade, politics, colonialism, and capitalism have changed food cultures around the world, for immigrants and countries’ natives alike, not only through the dishes placed on a table, but with generationally shared flavors, the spices packed in a suitcase, and so much more. After working with designer @welikehim on the identity and structure for issue one, Caroline brought us on as design director, joining the amazing team made up of editors @lisabutterworth & @__tien__ , visuals director @nidiacueva_stylist , research editor @morningmourning , and associate editor Leah Zibulsky.
BrightWay is the first credit card offering from OneMain Financial. With only an identity and credit card design in place, I was brought in to create and oversee an extensive design system that would reach all aspects of the brand — the product, the web, and in marketing.
The first step was to provide a more traditional brand guidelines document that we could all use as a foundation for moving forward; encompassing color, typography, illustration and photography directions, iconography rules, and much more.
Our concept for the app itself was to strip the design to its most simple and fundamental. Our team, lead by @emilycoates (VP & Managing Director of Design), and alongside Product Designers Alexis Romanoff and @thedeskofjob and User Experience Designers Ashley Vernon and Arthur Dickerson, were tasked with launching an MVP product in only six months, including development time. For onboarding, we created a chat-like guide that would help collect a potentially large amount of information in an enjoyable and easy to digest experience (before the AI explosion…).
Everything came together for the app itself: large typography, friendly rounded shapes, easy to digest onboarding and data inputs. The Retirement Score relies on a large amount of necessary information being provided, so we wanted this experience to never feel overwhelming or repetitive.
The color palette is bold and bright, far from your traditional and more conservative financial institutions. I brought on designer @thedeskofjob to help expand the illustration style (and assist with the user experience later in the project), using straight lines and primary shapes whenever possible. A hint of the mark is always included as well. The mark can also be used as a graphic element, masking shapes, illustrations and even photography.
Silvur is a retirement platform where users receive a personalized Retirement Score that predicts how long their savings will last. I was brought in during the beginning stages, establishing the brand and its guidelines, and building out the initial MVP app for launch. The Silvur mark abstracts the “u” in the name and represents growth over time — always forward and always upward. It is clear and concise, inspiring confidence and trust, while remaining familiar and conversational; we are working for “u”.
