CROPPED: Who’s Left Out?

Brief

Create a comprehensive campaign that addresses a social issue.
Capstone project for the UC Davis Design program.

Problem

Farm workers contribute to the $985 billion agricultural industry in the United States, but at what cost? Labor is invisibilized within consumers’ conversations of the produce production process, and workers are underpaid and exploited in the process.

Duration: 7 weeks

My roles (many hats!) : Art Director, Designer, Photographer, Copywriter, Strategist, Campaign Manager

Team: Alice Kuang, Maggie He, Scott Sanchez, Zoe Marin

Insight

Consumers are compelled to take action on social issues when they resonate with personal narratives on an emotional level.

Big Idea

Connect the personal with the political: bring farmworkers’ personal narratives into the public eye, and raise awareness of labor conditions farmworkers face.

Solution

Through visibility, CROPPED compels our audience to take action by utilizing their consumer buying power to directly support farmworkers, and provides the necessary tools (our deliverables) for them to do so.

Raising Awareness: OOH/poster campaign

Raising Awareness: Editorial Piece

My team and I researched the history of migrant farm labor in the United States to fully understand the scope of our campaign’s issue. We presented it in an editorial piece to raise awareness of the policies and conditions that engendered the exploitation and invisibilization of migrant farm labor.

Editorial Layout by Alice Kuang

Branding and Identity System

View the comprehensive campaign proposal here!

Through an extensive logo development process, I created a logo featuring a silhouette of a farmworker using figure ground perception. When minimized, it looks like an orange illustration, but when englarged, the sihouette is prominent. This urges the onlooker to take a closer look, as with the food on our tables.

We used a halftone photo treatment on all images, which pays homage to the aesthetic of historic farmworker movement visuals, dotted lines, and cropped photos to allude to the ongoing motif within the campaign---the question of “Who’s Left Out?”

Taking Action

Pamphlet & Recipe Cards

recipe cards & pamphlets by Maggie He

The pamphlet features information and testimonies about the current state of the farm industry. On the back on the pamphlet will be a poster that shows all fruits and veggies that are in season so buyers can make ethical choices when making their purchases.

The recipe pack will feature four easy recipes that can be made with produce that is currently in season. A new pack will be distributed every three months according to the current produce that is in season to encourage consumers to buy seasonally and support farmers directly when buying from farmers’ markets.

Deliverables

CROPPED reusable tote bags + mesh produce bags support sustainability efforts, and merchandise with our slogans allow consumers to rep us and spread the message.

Process & Research

Brainstorming We only had one guideline going into this: create a visual campaign to address a social issue. This kickstarted our journey, from narrowing down the issue, word mapping for slogans, many hours of name brainstorming and logo iterataring, to grounding ourselves in the who, what, when, where, whys.

Survey A survey was conducted to learn more about the consumer perspective regarding their produce shopping habits and their views on farm labor rights. Over 104 responses were recorded in the course of 4 days. This gave us a greater scope towards understanding our target audience.

Testimonials As part of our intentional ethnograhic approach, we gathered testimonies from migrant farm owners and farm workers across California, from speaking extensively with our local Davis farmer’s market vendors to farmworkers in Salinas, CA & Visalia, CA. By having Spanish speaking researchers on the team, we were able to provide a comfortable space and truly uplift their stories.

View the full process manual here!

CROPPED Team (L-R): Maggie He, Zoe Marin, Scott Sanchez, Me (Alice Kuang)