Community anchor Ballard Food Bank had served Seattle for almost five decades by providing food, support, and essential services, before having the opportunity to expand into a new home. To coincide with this important shift, we designed a new brand for the Ballard Food Bank and wove its spirit and messaging throughout their new building. Originally serving only the Ballard neighborhood, the Ballard Food Bank has expanded to serve eight Seattle neighborhoods and more than 7,000 people per month. They have continued to play an even more critical role in the community as the pandemic has put huge pressure on local services.

Their new brand was designed to embody a renewed mission: providing critical services that extend far beyond food. Centered on the updated tagline, "A Hub for Hope", this sentiment was reflected throughout signage, environmental graphics and donor recognition within the new space. Bright colors, functional and warm materials, and friendly and legible typography are woven throughout the interior and exterior. High on the façade outside, a bold "Hello, Neighbor!" broadcasts a welcome, and embraces the local community.

Custom illustrations underpin much of the brand, featuring different foods, resources and ideas. The images also help describe services to those for whom English is a second language. Used throughout Ballard Food Bank's digital and print communications, they can be mixed and matched by staff. On site they work big — as supergraphics high on the market walls — and small, on the donor wall made of button pins.

The donor wall is fabricated with everyday pins that we made ourselves with a button-maker. This kept the fabrication cost down and also allows staff to add additional donors at less than a dollar a piece. In keeping with the equitable mission of the Food Bank, all of the donor buttons are the same size.

The brand promotes dignity at the Hub for Hope. Anyone can come into the space, easily find what they need, and want to spend time here – not just get in, get out. Our objective was to help create an inclusive, humane, and dignified place for those in the community that are often shunted into the most marginal of spaces in the city.