Rooted: A Culinary Journey

A rich educational tapestry of African
American cuisine with a unique destination-focused approach.

Instructor: Katey Stafford
 Elements: Branding, Packaging, Illustration

Overview

“ROOTED is a celebration of African American cuisine as well as a place to learn about the history of classic soul food recipes passed down through generations. Each ‘origin’ contains specific ingredients critical to each of our four hand-crafted flight menus. Our goal is to take consumers like you on a culinary journey by educating them on how the African Slave Trade inspired many recipes curated today.”

Logo

Final Logos (Main + Responsive)

For my logo, I wanted something that combined the idea of destination, as well as ancestry. I came up with a bunch of ideas using trees and roots that I thought would get my idea across the best. Finally, the result was a more simplified plant like my icon, which was placed into a GPS marker shape. I gave the “roots” of this plant a more geometric design as a homage to the many African textile designs I have admired throughout my life. For the colors, I wanted something neutral that still felt warm and homey. I went with a traditional green for my plant and outside border, followed by a brown to represent the “roots”. I added this vivid mustard yellow to give the logo a pop of color.

pATTERNS + ILLUSTRATIONS

I knew from the start that I didn't want a traditional menu layout, but something that really represented the entire purpose of my restaurant. I had the idea to use the exact GPS marker shape from my logo to create an accordion-fold menu that would feature four diverse flight menus. The purpose of these flights are to highlight foods from specific regions during the Slave Trade. Along with these flight menus are illustrations that also aid consumers in learning about these regions and the food items associated with them. The same color scheme as my logo was used, as well as a deep but vibrant red to break up all of the saturated tones.

Packaging

All Wine Bottles Mockup

My idea for packaging was established before any of my other design components. With the flight menus, I wanted to create fun patterned wine bottles to pair with each origin. Starting out with creating patterns that I felt embodied each flight, each wine bottle was initially created to have a standard rectangular label. After many iterations and design feedback from my professor, we decided to go in the decal direction, letting the color of the wines highlight the patterns instead of a color behind each pattern.

Other Deliverables

conclusion

The biggest takeaway I received from this project was to trust the process of designing. There were different iterations of each individual aspect before reaching the finished product that gave me a newfound respect for my fellow designers as well as myself. It was difficult at times, but I pushed through to give the best end result. The way my project has blossomed from the original thought was unexpected, yet very rewarding. I appreciate all of the collaboration from both my peers and professor, who helped me bring Rooted to its fullest potential. I hope that Rooted's story encourages those reading to believe in the process, as well as their own journey.