Food Font – Kristen Baumlier

Tag: Food Font

Food Font is a Member of the Green Plus Durham Food System Consortium and Receives a Burt’s Bees Scholarship

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Kbaumlier

Food Font is happy to have a home in Durham! We are excited to be selected as a member of the Green Plus Durham Food System Consortium (DFSC), which has been created by the North Carolina Triangle-based Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) and the Burt’s Bees Greater Good Foundation. The DFSC is comprised of local, food-centric businesses and nonprofits who share best practices and collaborate to strengthen the area’s food system and help protect the environment.

Food Font is one of the 20 organizations that have been selected to be part of the consortium. As a member of Green Plus, we will be working with the ISD to improve the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) of Food Font. We will be working with a mentor in order to better understand how our actions can protect our local environment.

Some things I am looking forward to developing and getting support with are developing a sustainability plan with key objectives, selecting and presenting some environmentally friendly products to use for the project, and committing to engaging the Food Font community as it grows with issue of environment and social/community impact.

As part of the DFSC, we will participate in periodic group conversations and meet other Durham based small businesses and non-profits that grow, distribute, prepare food or raise awareness of food system issues. Some of the other members are Cocao and Cinnamon, a local coffee shop, and Sweet Beet City Farm, a urban farm in Durham.

Thanks to the Institute for Sustainable Development, Green Plus and The Burt’s Bees Greater Good Foundation for giving us an opportunity to be part of this new consortium!

Image Source:
gogreenplus.org/

Links:

Green Plus – Burt’s Bees + Green Plus Food System Consortium in Durham

gogreenplus.org/

www.burtsbees.com/c/root-values-burt-s-bees.html

Events and Actions: Food Font Tool Development Update

Posted on April 11, 2013April 11, 2013 by Kbaumlier

Today at work a colleague of mine asked me, “So when is the Food Font tool going to be ready?” We talked about the process of developing programs and tools, and I gave him an update of the progress.

So what is the progress? After months of design work, the interface and design of the tool is done. Currently I am creating the Event Action Matrix document, a document comprised of images, text descriptions and directions for how the tool works. To make this, I create images and screen shots of each element (each button state, each menu, what happens on the canvas, etc.) and explain how each element works and functions. The work is detailed – but it is exciting to be working on this document that helps the programmer do the work to make the tool work. I am lucky to have a brother who does this kind of work, so he is consulting on this step of the process.

Here are some images that are used in the document to show stages of the tool, and how it works:

Food Font Tool Panel – Use this to select a Food Font to use. Select and find Fonts
by the image, name, location/group, tags, or by general text search.

Background Tool Panel – choose a background. Don’t like it? Change it again!

The Stamp Tool – Stamp and Draw with a letter!

Post an Image – Dialogue Window

Getting Better and Better – An Update from Food Font Development

Posted on March 11, 2013March 24, 2013 by Kbaumlier

The Food Font design is continuing and getting better! The interface design has evolved to have smaller icons on top, a resizable workspace, and no layer panel. The Food Font alphabet selector, background selector, and other tools have been created.

This weekend I am meeting with a colleague who does interface design and programming and we will work on the design document that outlines the mechanics, programming details, and overview of the tool.

The design goes on!

Food Font Design Tool : an Update from Development

Posted on December 20, 2012December 23, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Recently a couple of messages have come in from people who are excited to use the Food Font design tool and do events in the future. Some people also have been asking when it will be ready to use.

Food Font is an interactive art project where people can make alphabets out of food, take pictures of each letter, and later use these and other food alphabets in a fun, free, interactive online design tool. The project supports dialogue and builds community around food, health, and sustainability. Currently the design of the interactive design tool is underway.

One person contacted us last week and wrote, “I am so excited about the launch of the design tool! I\’m a community nutritionist and am forever trying to make flyers look interesting, so this will be a fantastic way to do that! Thanks so much for doing this. I think I might pull my camera out and try and make some food letters out of Christmas food!”

Another person who helps markets organize activities and community events wrote,” I have been the manager for the Vashon Island Farmers Market for the past year, and in that capacity was always looking for food education opportunities, especially one that is as engaging as this_… I will figure out a way to organize a FOOD FONT day for our summer season (when the variety of foods is at its greatest.)”

The official launch date for the Food Font interactive tool is Winter 2013. An exact date? There is currently not one, since development time can vary. I can report that the design document that outlines all functions and visual componants of the tool is in the work. This tool is then given to the programmer that we are working with – who then does the programming and assembly of the tool.

With my Winter break, I am able to dedicate more time to the project, so I will be posting some in-progress images as they are in the works.

Just imagine, by this time next year everyone will be able to send, print, and post holiday messages out of food!

Links:
www.foodfont.com

Food Font: 22 Community Alphabets and 1209 Letters Later

Posted on November 4, 2012November 4, 2012 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 100^th 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.