Brand identity for a scrappy, happy compost program.

As we move deeper into the Anthropocene Era, it’s more important than ever for cities, towns and villages to take action at the local level. While voting and policy changes are by far the most effective forms of fighting climate change, the reality is we all have to do a little bit imperfectly to move the needle now. Enter Village Compost.

Over 5 years in the making, what started as an impossible goal and became a seasonal pilot has now launched as a full fledged municipal compost program, free to everyone in the Village of Rhinebeck and resulting in “black gold” sold to local organic farms. As someone passionate about reducing food waste, I have been working with this community effort for many years, and it’s been a joy to design an identity that is simultaneously fun, quirky, and memorable all at once.

The wordmark takes its inspiration from a piece of compost, an orange peel, shaped in the initials of the brand name. Plastered across every piece of collateral imaginable—from tiny stickers collected by local kids for their buckets to decorating a full fledge dumpster—the logo’s wink is meant to draw people in and inspire behavioral change in a welcoming, celebratory way. Paired with an optimistic and earthy color palette and a clean, everyman type system using Poppins, the system is bold and straightforward.

A suite of graphic, grainy illustrations of food waste and garden growth (the result of turning your food waste into a resource!) round out the system to feel approachable and draw poeple in for a second look. A dumpster is just a dumpster, until you see it covered with big drawings of pizza crust, banana peels and carrot scraps!

Many, many volunteers have used the system to create everything from social media posts to flyers. And while they don’t always follow the brand guidelines, it’s been a blast to see the identity do what it’s supposed to: teach and inspire people to take one step toward a more earth-friendly way of living.

The case study is an ongoing work in progress, continue to check back.