Far West Fungi is passionate about edible fungi. For more than 35 years they have been dedicated to the growing, distribution and marketing of organic specialty mushrooms. When you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, you’ll find great fresh fungi and a full line of quality products at their retail stores and at farmer's markets throughout the region. The fresh food market has taken off in the recent years and Far West Fungi sells a do-it-yourself at home mushroom grow kit, along with quality mushroom supplements. Since being in business for over 35 years the company is looking for a fresh new look to best represent the brand and draw a crowd of all ages to the many health benefits of mushrooms.
In an effort to give the brand an updated look this Grow kit along with mushroom supplements, logo redesign, website, Instagram posts, Sweatshirt design, Product photography, and Instruction card is a great way to capture attention to the benefits of mushrooms. These elements showcase the brand and promote how easy it is to grow fresh foods from the comfort of your home.
Senior capstone: FAr West FUngi
Deliverables:
Logo redesign
Website (home page, shop page, checkout page)
Mushroom Grow kit (3)
Mushroom supplement dropper bottles (3)
Postcard (Instruction card)
Instagram Tiles (9)
Sweatshirt Design
Product photography
About the Company
Far West Fungi has been growing high-end mushroom products at their state-of-the-art farms since 1982. With several popup stands at farmers markets, brick and mortar store fronts, and on the shelves of local grocery stores they sell an array of products revolving around mushrooms. From the substrate it grows in to select merch, tincture supplements, and the mushrooms itself Far West Fungi has been a leading supplier on the West Coast for all things mushroom related.
This year they are promoting their products to people who are not able to purchase them in person. Being able to ship across the United States as single or wholesale orders. Everyone of all ages can grow a variety of mushrooms and slowly see the benefits of natural organic mushroom growing.
Target Audience
The primary target audience is people interested in growing food from home. People of all ages who enjoy locally grown high-end food from farmers markets and food stores. And anyone drawn to the benefits that mushrooms have to offer to their diet.
To independently research, design, and produce a logo, website, three mushroom grow kits, three mushroom supplement bottles, Instruction card, nine Instagram tiles, a sweatshirt design, and product photography for Far West Fungi.
To thoroughly research mushrooms to incorporate into each component of the project to make it stylized in a way that is close to the real thing.
To actively self-critique my designs in all elements in order to improve the quality of work.
To create a cohesive identity across all deliverables.
To create a clean and well flowing website that shows well-developed research and execution.
To apply critique from peers and Instructors whenever necessary.
To execute perfect craft and present project in a way that best reflects the brand.
Objectives
Research
In order to complete this project, I began by researching different organic food packaging, as well as what the core of the mushrooms needed to grow out of. The mushrooms grow from fully colonized substrate that is specifically formulated to grow a specific spawn of mushroom. With the substrate being in a block form I knew that that packaging needed to be in a rectilinear box. The box needed to be able to be placed with in a plastic bag for the mushroom process to begin as well has hold moisture in a humid environment to grow. With a wide variety of mushrooms to choose from through my research I narrowed down the some of the most popular ones the company has to offer before settling on three to design my project around: Shiitake, Lion’s Mane, and Pink Oyster.
An additional point of research was how the design of the box was going to be printed. After throwing around the idea of just a normal printing method and adhering the design right on the box I settled on an approach I learned in high school called screen printing. Using this method allowed me to show case the stylized patterns I needed to create from the look of each mushroom allowing the cardboard box color to aid in the design and have an earthy element to the box structure.
You can check out the website in the XD link below!
Process
The processing of this project began with the logo design. Starting with the logo design I was able to invasion a brand and overall look of Far West Fungi. With each mushroom being very unique to itself the logo needed to be simple and easy-to-read as to what Far West Fungi offers in terms of products. After some trial marks I settled on a simple clean stylization of a mushroom that can be readable at first glance. Pairing this with the type face Goldleaf Bold I was able to take the mushroom design placement and mimic the way the box functions growing out of the right corner while having the type tightly structured to hold the logo in a rectangle shape.
After completing the logo, I needed to solve the problem of stylizing each mushroom in a way that showed their organic form but simplified. Mushrooms are not the most appealing thing to look at but breaking them down to highlight specific characteristics was the start of the process. Pink oyster was the first pattern completed capturing the spores. Pink oyster mushrooms are vibrantly pink often growing in clusters. The next mushroom that I tackled was the Shiitake. Early compositions the pattern I created working well alone It was just not working for the front of the box design. Having established the Idea that the front of the box was to indicate where the mushrooms grow out of was important to depict the cluster of mushrooms in a truer looking state. Compacting and highlighting the caps of the mushroom to solve this I then had to worry about color and printing. Shiitake is brown in color but the box type I choose was also brown in color. Thinking about how I could use it to my advantage I designed the clusters to let the brown come through and black was chosen as an outline to define the shape. Lastly came the most challenging mushroom Lion’s Mane. Lion’s Mane looks just like its name with a white fur like almost droopy looking organic form after a few iterations I was able to simplify it down to a tight cluster highlighting a few of the droopy characteristics.
