Project Overview
The intention behind the project was to bring multidisciplinary designers together to help vendors of Market 707 and create a creative collaboration. Scadding Court Center began Market 707 as a way to bring together local entrepreneurs serving up to 10 types of delicious international street food, along with unique goods and services to create an urban food and shopping environment unlike any other. The retrofitted containers provide an affordable space for individuals to create their dream business.
The task was to create a connection between the vendors and the designers with the final goal to improve their business in any possible way. Co-designing with the vendors was an essential process to create effective design solutions
More specifically I worked with a Graphic Designer an Environmental Designer and another Industrial Designer. We were paired with Chef Harwash a new vendor specializing in traditional Syrian Food.
Timeline:
4 months
Collaborative project with Ashley Yep, Tyson Benjamin and Montserrat De Grau
Tools
Adobe Illustrator
Generative Toolkit
Conversational Interviews
Skills
User Testing
Design Development
User Research
💬 The objective of this project was to approach the design problem by having the chance to Co-Design with vendors and multidisciplinary designers
Co-Design
"Co-Designing is the process involving end-users, customers and other relevant stakeholders in the design process to ensure the outcome meets their needs. It is based on four steps: engage, understand, ideate and validate "
- ( European Creative Business Network)
🗒 Phase 1: Interviews
Chef Harwash consists of two Syrian brothers that came to Canada as refugees, when we started co-designing with them they still hadn't opened yet and were still in the renovation process. As our first research tool we decided to conduct several conversational interviews to help us understand what their basic needs were.
The initial report helped us get to know out clients background better, we learned they were two brothers with very different personalities; one was an economist and the other was an engineer prior their arrival to Canada and they were finally full-filling their dream to open a Syrian Restaurant.
Their end goal was to share their cuisine and their rich culture with the Canadian community
Talk Points
- What are some of your ideas or visions for your business? and how might we help you achieve them?
- Tell us about your menu. What food will you be providing?
- What are some of your ideas related to marketing? How do you want to present yourself to the community?
- Do you have a logo or menu idea designed yet? What do they look like? What do you want them to look like?
Insights
- Overall aesthetic: Syrian and Canadian fusion
- Prefer yellow/red (warm) colour scheme to draw attention
- Want a clear menu , easy for the customer to understand and high quality pictures for those who are unfamiliar with the cuisine
- Refine/redesign logo
Phase 2: Design Process
Generative Toolkit
As part of the design process we generated a cognitive toolkit to help us in the co-design process with the vendors. A cognitive toolkit is composed of a range of simple and symbolic shapes and words or even fonts that can be used to express ideas. The end goal when using the toolkit was to have a better understanding of what style the vendors where looking for when branding their restaurant.
Cognitive Toolkit
The toolkit consisted of a variety of colours, patterns and images that the vendors would rank and give feedback on.
- Introduction Sheet explaining: " Organize images from least to most liked, feel free to draw or write notes!"
- Topics: Packaging, Menu Design, Typeface
- We provided markers, sticky notes a glue stick and scissors
- We also had a reference sheet of different logos, menu and packaging examples to help kickstart the creative process
Insights
- Liked bold, "masculine" fonts: Slab Fonts
- Also liked scripted style font, more traditional
- Wants bold, vibrant aesthetic
- Need support in Social Media and Web Design
- Want the logo to have the beard with a hint of a smile
- Must reflect roots and be welcoming
-Enjoy geometric shapes
- Must have Damascus cap to create balance
Goals
- Demonstrate the story behind the food and the family tradition
- Have about 10 items in the menu
- Formally document recipes as well as share!!! (Social Media)
Next Steps
-Iterate Logo and Menu designs
- Create a Social Media Guide
As part of our research we also had the chance to try their food
🛠 Iterate! Iterate! Iterate!
Phase 3: Design Solutions
Menu - Design Solutions
The Implementation Plan
As an additional part of our assignment we were required to present an implementation plan for the future of Chef Harwash's business plan, to help him be guided through how to continuously maintain what we created for him.
🔑 Key Takeaways
Lessons Learned
- Efficient time management : we had to work collaboratively as a group helping one another in our strengths and limitations. As we all were specialized in different mediums we had to lean from one another how to work together while working efficiently in terms of how we manage our time.
-Communicate while adapting to new challenges: the idea of co-design was to work together and most importantly communicate to the best of our abilities with the vendors while creating exactly what they wanted for their business.
Next Steps
We accompanied Chef Harwash as long as we could guiding them to what we have created for them and how to implement a time arrived. Market 707 is still functioning and Chef Harwash has grown immensely since the last time we saw them.