Food Font: 22 Community Alphabets and 1209 Letters Later

Posted on by Kbaumlier

This year there were lots of public Food Font events done in various locations.  The goal of the events was to get the project into public and to start to build community for the project.  The Summer and Fall Food Font events have wrapped up, and currently the focus is developing the online Food Font tool.  It is nice to take a moment and reflect back on the past Food Font events.

The events started with the initial Food Font event being done at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where students, faculty and staff made two lunchtime fonts; a alphabet made of food from the vending machines and a alphabet made of food from peoples’ packed lunches.   Later in Summer, Food Font went on the road.  So what happened?  Let’s take a look.

  • 12 community events that were done this Summer and Fall
  • Events were done in 5 States which include Ohio, Wisconsin, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.  Cities include Cleveland, OH; Buffalo, NY, Milwaukee, WI; Pittsburgh, PA, and Carrboro, NC.
  • Highlights in Cleveland include being at the RIPE festival at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, at the Ingenuity Festival, and at the West Side Market 100th Anniversary Festival.

So what exactly was done at the events?

  • A total of 22 community alphabets were created
  • 1209 letters  (!) were made out of food
  • A variety of types of alphabets were made that include both uppercase and lowercase alphabets.  Some of the alphabets are for English and Spanish.

If you have not taken a look in a while, make sure you check out the Food Font Flickr page.  You can view and download all of the letters and  alphabets.  There are also pictures from the events.

Currently there is one alphabet still in the works which is made of Cleveland Food Truck Food in Cleveland.  There also are about 4 alphabets that were made to launch the project and are already edited for the online tool.  These include an alphabet made of kale, a holiday dinner alphabet (made of Kbaumlier’s Holiday dinner food from the appetizer to the dessert), an alphabet made of gum drops, and circus peanut alphabet.

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