Food & Friends
Food & Friends impressive kitchen, offices and distribution center in NW, Washington, DC.
Meals bagged and ready to be home-delivered.
They delivered 4k meals a day, or 1.2 m meals last year to clients across 5,300 square miles!
A freshly prepared, nutritionally tailored meal.
Food & Friends has an amazing, vibrant volunteer community who are always there helping.
Carolyn Schmidt, Chief Development Officer
Food & Friends logo which has been in use for over 20 years and the concept requirements.
Food & Friends, is a community-based organization in Washington, D.C. that provides freshly prepared, home-delivered meals, groceries, and nutrition counseling to people living with life-challenging illnesses, including their dependents and caregivers.
Food & Friends was started in a church kitchen on a shoestring budget during the AIDS epidemic. “We’re centered on compassion and surround our clients with a caring staff and volunteer community,” said Carolyn Schmidt, the Chief Development Officer.
Food & Friends delivered 4k meals a day, or 1.2 million meals last year to clients across 5,300 square miles! They’re recognized as one of DC's best-managed non-profits so it’s an honor to have the opportunity to design a new logo for them.
I began my research by touring their impressive facility and took photos of all the varied ways the logo gets used. I also spoke with the marketing team and volunteers who are passionately connected to the mission. Finally, I had them fill out a brand journal that we give to each of our clients to get their understanding of their brand.
We were only tasked with redesigning the logo. It was not an overall brand identity redo. The current website had just been designed two years ago so they wanted to maintain a consistent color palette and preferably typography that would pair well with the fonts on the site.
We researched similar organizations and logo marks then presented six concepts to a small working group who selected three to present to their board.
The first round of concepts presented to the working group. The top three were preferred but the hands hugging the bag was a clear favorite.
Round one favorite was the concept of the cutout hands hugging the bag and connected by a rainbow. It conveyed their mission of volunteerism, caring, and Food & Friends’ roots in the gay community.
But when the concepts were presented to the board, there was a concern that the cutout hands against white could be misconstrued. After a lot of discussion with the working group, we went in a different direction.
The second round of concepts was presented to the working group. The bag with the rainbow spectrum inside was liked but some thought the smile was too simplistic. The hands holding the heart and the double-F with rotated hearts were also well-liked.
Round two included a bag, hands, hearts, even a smile, and reductive marks using varied colors and typography. Again, the bag was the favorite but the hands holding the heart were a close second. The double F with the bottom of the F letter form with (rotated) hearts was third.
I then combined the liked elements from round 2 in varied ways and we had a winner! The process took several months which isn’t unusual when there are a lot of decision-makers, considerations and the winter holidays.