Foodicons is an international initiative featuring contributions from artists, design judges, food system experts, and consumer groups from across the globe. Learn more about Foodicons or join the team here.
Foodicons is an international initiative featuring contributions from artists, design judges, food system experts, and consumer groups from across the globe. Learn more about Foodicons or join the team here.
The first phase of the Food Clarity Activator, and its prototypes, were the result of several food experts working together to identify, prioritize, and define the range of food terms needed for an effective system. This team of diverse food experts met frequently for 6 months and worked collaboratively online to define the scope and focus it on an effective solution.
These activators all follow a simple formula:
Define the problem. A core editorial group defines a set of specific short term challenges that must be overcome.
Mobilize. Key stakeholders are gathered from across the value chain—mixing food companies with scientists, academic institutions with NGOs— to develop solutions to this challenge in a six-month sprint.
Align. The group begins by uniting on shared values, which are then developed into mutually accepted core principles. The application of these principles is contextual, with sets of best practices emerging that are specific to each sector across the value chain.
Shared Language. The entire values/principles/practices exercise generates the core functional language for this sector. Agreement by all parties on these definitions leads to a machine-readable universal visual language to be used in multiple contexts. From here tools and applications can be built from this common framework.
Activate. The outcomes of the activator transforms the participants’ ideas into a collection of freely available open-source tools for the world to use.
Dan is an entrepreneur experienced in sustainability, startups, and international trade. His endeavors over the last 20 years include launching a natural snack company, heading a logistics firm, opening a restaurant, and managing a creative agency. He holds a degree in Business Management from Mexico’s Universidad Iberoamericana and an MBA from Babson College. As Managing Partner, Dan pursues strategic opportunities for New Crop Capital’s portfolio companies.
Doniga Markegard is a wildlife tracker, regenerative rancher, speaker, and author. Her teen years in nature school started her on a path that led to a career in animal tracking and then permaculture and ranching in California, where she works to regenerate both soil and community through farming. Using the innovative, carbon-storing methods of regenerative ranching, she’s restoring the land she tends, bringing native grasses and wildlife back to the depleted San Francisco Bay Area rangelands. Doniga is a certified educator for Holistic Management International and a consultant for Nature Awareness Programs around the world. She is a regular speaker at events such as the Bioneers Conference, Food Inspiration Trendsummit, and The Grassfed Exchange, has worked with companies such as Patagonia and Google, and has been featured in articles from FastCompany, GreenBiz, The San Francisco Examiner, and NPR.
Eric Heiman grew up in the backwoods of western Pennsylvania and attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh where he completed a Bachelor of Architecture in 1992. His winding, post-graduate path finally led him to the Bay Area where he studied graphic design at the California College of the Arts (CCA) and then later co-founded (with Adam Brodsley) the multidisciplinary, award-winning studio Volume Inc. in 2001.
Eric has taught at CCA since 1999 and was awarded the college-wide Excellence in Teaching award in 2003. At CCA, he currently manages TBD*, a student-staffed design studio that does work for local Bay Area nonprofits and civic institutions. His writing on design has been published in Design Observer, Eye, andEmigré, and he was a founding writer for SFMOMA’s Open Space online publication. In 2017 he was made a Fellow of AIGA San Francisco for his contribution to raising the standards of excellence in practice and conduct within the Bay Area design community.
Guillermo Castilleja is a Senior Advisor at the Global Alliance for the Future of Food. Guillermo’s time has been generously allocated by his foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, to help the Global Alliance further its work on true cost accounting. Before being seconded to the Global Alliance, Guillermo, in his position as senior fellow at the Moore Foundation, advised the president on both internal analytics and external relations – providing foresight and judgement to aid in identifying future directions, as well as opportunities to elevate the foundation’s and grantees’ achievements. Guillermo served six years at the helm of the foundation’s Environmental Conservation Program, leading its efforts to protect critical ecosystems and balance long-term conservation with sustainable use.
Before joining the foundation in 2010, Guillermo worked for WWF for 18 years, most recently as executive director for conservation at WWF International. In that capacity, he directed and coordinated its global conservation efforts, leading the development of place-based and policy priorities for the global network. At the beginning of his career in WWF, he was country representative in Mexico and later vice-president for the Latin America and the Caribbean program. Guillermo has also worked for the World Bank and the National Wildlife Federation. He serves on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Advisory Board, and the board of the Fondo Mexicano Para La Conservacion De La Naturaleza, A.C./Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature, A.C. (FMCN). He was recently appointed special advisor to the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. Previously, Guillermo was a member of Mexico’s National Commission on Protected Areas and the National Forestry Commission, as well as the board of directors of WWF Russia. Through speaking engagements around the world, research published in peer-reviewed journals and the media, Guillermo has addressed the relationship between protected areas and food security, strategies for long-term financing of large-scale land conservation, and the social opportunities and challenges of biodiversity conservation. Guillermo graduated from the National University of Mexico and received a master’s degree in forestry, a master’s degree in philosophy, and a doctorate in forest ecology from Yale University.
Nathan is a seasoned, professional strategist and serial entrepreneur as well as a pioneer in the fields of experience design, interaction design, and information design. Currently, he’s creating new tools and models for new ventures and “total value” (beyond just economic and functional value). He speaks and teaches internationally, and has authored many books (below).
Nathan is the chair of the groundbreaking Design MBA programs in design strategy at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. These programs prepare the next generation of innovation leaders for a world that is profitable, sustainable, ethical, and truly meaningful. The programs unite the perspectives of systems thinking, design and integrative thinking, business models, sustainability, and generative leadership into a holistic strategic framework.
Before academia, he was a pioneer in multi- and online media. He worked with Richard Saul Wurman at TheUnderstandingBusiness and co-founded vivid studios, a pioneering interactive media company and one of the first Web services firms on the planet. vivid’s hallmark was helping to establish and validate the field of information architecture by training an entire generation of designers in the newly emerging web industry.
A graduate of Antioch College in the United States, Paul Zink continued his training on organic farms and gardens throughout the US, New Zealand, Japan, Panama and Costa Rica. His expertise includes the design, installation and maintenance of customized food-forest garden systems for homeowners, hoteliers and conference centers. His tireless breadfruit efforts have resulted in an important collaboration between EARTH University in Costa Rica and Cultivaris via Global Breadfruit. As a Project Director for Global Breadfruit, he continues the introduction of breadfruit into Central and South America. Paul is bilingual in English and Spanish and brings over 10 years of practical experience to this project.
Food historian and futurist, with a concentration in the history of urban food markets, particularly in Western Europe during the 19th century. Why does a historian think about the future of food? It’s all about context, having the knowledge about how we got here as we think about the future. Am particularly interested in the use of technology to improve and re-invent the global food supply chain.
Food+City tells stories through print and digital platforms, sparking thoughtful conversations and inspiring change in the global food system. For five years, F+C encouraged entrepreneurs to solve food system problems with an annual challenge prize, working with over 75 food startups and $250K in funding. Currently, the focus of Food+City is to contribute meaningfully to the global food system by highlighting important stories, creating excellent content, and continuing to champion other entrepreneurs improving how the world is fed. .
Other highlights and interests include: researched, wrote, photographed for four consumer interest books, wrote three non-fiction books, consulted for companies, big and small, about electronic publishing strategies, founded non-profit educational farm, participated on a dozen non-profit and for-profit boards, managed and developed boards of directors, planned events, solicited grants, donations, traveled to remote areas of the world, speaking two foreign languages in addition to English. Holds culinary certificates in cheese, Cordon Bleu (London). Produced and marketed heritage food products. Learned how to butcher and aspire to be a cheese affineur.
Beyond professional passions, I love living large, and am an accomplished athlete, having completed ultramarathon races across six global deserts. Also appreciate storytelling and the arts, and expressing myself through painting, drawing, film, and many other creative mediums.
Valerie Christy is a Founding Partner at Almanac Insights. After initially enrolling in the Blue Hill at Stone Barns FARMS Apprenticeship in 2014, she began managing special projects at Blue Hill, ranging from the wastED pop-ups in New York and London to the launch of Blue Hill’s first nationally-distributed CPG product. Before that, Valerie was an early member of the team at LivingSocial, where she developed and implemented new business verticals aimed at expanding the company’s audience and brand. Through these combined experiences, Valerie learned firsthand both the opportunities and challenges facing early-stage businesses across industries. Valerie holds a B.A in International Studies from Middlebury College. As the west coast anchor for Almanac, she currently lives in San Francisco, CA.
Alberto is co-producer and researcher at the Reawakened Food Initiative by The Lexicon, a global storytelling campaign aimed to raise awareness around biodiversity in our food system.
Based in Italy, Alberto consults for startups, companies and Universities and his main focus is innovation in food and business models for sustainability.
Alberto holds a bachelor degree in Philosophy and a master in Social Entrepreneurship. The philosopher in him lives by the Maieutic method, pushing him to be a catalyst for change.
This focus strongly also drives his work with the Design Factory of the University of Bologna. Here Alberto coaches multidisciplinary teams of designers and researchers in open innovation projects, towards prototyping working solutions to social challenges.
Douglas Gayeton, Chief Lexicographer and Co-founder of The Lexicon, is an award-winning information architect, filmmaker, photographer, and writer who has created work at the boundaries of traditional and converging media since the early 90’s. He directed the KNOW YOUR FOOD series for PBS and GROWING ORGANIC for USDA, and has authored two books, SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town, and LOCAL: The New Face of Food & Farming in America.
Laura is the co-founder and Executive Director of “The Lexicon”. A social entrepreneur deeply rooted in the environmental movement, she founded Laloo’s, the first goat’s milk ice cream in the United States, a company based on principles informed by food science, water stewardship, animal welfare and the good food movement. Named a top 10 tastemakers by Newsweek, she continues to advise food companies after a successful exit from ice cream. Prior to Laloo’s, Laura worked in television. She founded Slo.Graffiti, a consumer products branding company subsidiary of Palomar Pictures and owns one technical patent for Tunnelvision, a proprietary storytelling system for subway systems. Laura is a graduate of Miami University where she rode for the Equestrian team, and still rides when she isn’t gardening, composting, or pickling something from the farm she shares with her partner Douglas Gayeton. She serves on several nonprofit boards including Womenserve NGO dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls in Rajasthan, India, and Petaluma Bounty, a community farm. She is an active 4H club Mom who is most proud of her 12 year-old daughter who is the Sonoma county Jr. poultry exhibitor champion and the apple of her eye.
Nathan is a seasoned, professional strategist and serial entrepreneur as well as a pioneer in the fields of experience design, interaction design, and information design. Currently, he’s creating new tools and models for new ventures and “total value” (beyond just economic and functional value). He speaks and teaches internationally, and has authored many books (below).
Nathan is the chair of the groundbreaking Design MBA programs in design strategy at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. These programs prepare the next generation of innovation leaders for a world that is profitable, sustainable, ethical, and truly meaningful. The programs unite the perspectives of systems thinking, design and integrative thinking, business models, sustainability, and generative leadership into a holistic strategic framework.
Before academia, he was a pioneer in multi- and online media. He worked with Richard Saul Wurman at TheUnderstandingBusiness and co-founded vivid studios, a pioneering interactive media company and one of the first Web services firms on the planet. vivid’s hallmark was helping to establish and validate the field of information architecture by training an entire generation of designers in the newly emerging web industry.
Pier Giorgio Provenzano is The Lexicon’s Head of Digital and lead Animator and Video Editor. Based near Bristol, England, his projects include a short film series for PBS, music videos for Napster, a feature-length documentary for HBO, several animated shorts for Warner Brothers and Toyota, short films for Sustainable Food Trust, and GrowEatGather, which showcases British farmers and their role in producing good sustainable food.
Experience Designer with a demonstrated history of working in the computer software industry. Skilled in Information Design, Icon Design, Graphics, User Experience (UX) and Fashion Illustration. Strong information technology professional with a Graphic Design focused in visual design from Alsterdamm, Kommunikationsdesign.
Sonja Hernandez leads the Brand and Icons design teams at Adobe, who design the brand architecture, product logos, splash screens, and the in-app workflow icons that appear in all of Adobe\’92s desktop software and mobile products. She also creates environmental graphics and large-scale art pieces for Adobe offices around the world, and speaks about Branding at conferences and creative events. Outside of Adobe, Sonja teaches Graphic Design and Typography at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and can often be found hiking in the Berkeley hills.
Sonja is a holds a BFA Studio Art from Simmons College, studied Graphic Design at California College of the Arts, and has a post-graduate certificate in Typeface Design from Cooper Union.
For over twenty years I’ve specialized in shaping meaningful ideas into powerful visual expression across a wide range of graphic mediums from print to digital. Whether working for a start-up or a premium brand, those who work with me rely on my ability to capture their unique brand flavor visually and feel confident that I understand their business strategy and goals. The result is design that really ‘nails it’.
As Design Lead and Partner at Interactive Things, Christoph approaches design challenges with empathy for the user and meticulous attention to detail. He is passionate about supporting designers to sharpen their skills individually while refining their process collectively.
At Interactive Things, he leads projects for clients including OECD, UNESCO, UBS and the German Federal Government.
Previously, Christoph worked as a freelance UX designer and as an interface designer for Swisscom, a major telecommunications provider in Switzerland. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Interaction Design from the Zurich University of the Arts.
As the Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Noise 13, the San Francisco brand strategy and design agency, Dava is the driver behind building thoughtful, sustainable brands. For more than two decades, Dava has been distilling business vision into the potent essence of brand experience.
A design evangelist, Dava is the Co-Founder of In/Visible Projects. At its core, In/visible Projects believes in the power of design. Healthy cross-functional collaboration leads to innovative decision making.
Always inventing, Dava is also an advisor, mentor, and investor, speaker, moderator, and artist. She sits on the advisory boards for all things good–Good People, Good Food Foundation, and the Visual Media Alliance. She is also part of the REGEN1 team building tools and big picture plans for a regenerative food system.
Diane Mikhael is a design educator, author, curator, and researcher. She is the author of the book Bilingualism in Visual Communication: Visible Forms and Meaning of Arabic and Latin Typography (2017). She holds an MFA in Criticism and Curatorial Practices (OCAD University, Toronto, Canada), and an MA in Design (Middlesex University, London, UK). Diane holds International recognition from the International Society of Typographic Designers London, (1996). She is the co-founder of the Middle East Design Educators Association (MEDEA).
For more than twenty-five years, Diane works as a design educator in the design department at different universities in Toronto, and the Middle East. She lectures and publishes in many international conferences. She runs workshops on design and serves as a juror in many international design contests and projects.
With an infinitum passion for cross-cultural engagements, her intrinsic research is an amalgam of theoretical and pragmatic examinations around the thematic path of Design and Culture, and design for social change.
Eric Heiman is principal and co-founder of the award-winning, oft-exhibited multidisciplinary studio Volume Inc. He also teaches at California College of the Arts (CCA) where he currently manages TBD*, a student-staffed design studio creating work to help local Bay Area nonprofits and civic institutions. Eric writes about design every so often, has curated one film festival, occasionally podcasts about classic literature, and was recently made an AIGA Fellow for his contribution to raising the standards of excellence in practice and conduct within the Bay Area design community.
Javier Cueto is the Head of Design and Multimedia in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Javier and his team, based in New York, Geneva and The Hague, are behind the Humanitarian Icons. A collection of more 350 icons that are used in reports, dashboards and infographics in humanitarian emergencies to represent crises-related concepts, such as “earthquake”, “refugee” or “food security”. Learn more about the Humanitarian Icons here.
Hugh Dubberly studied environmental design (University of Colorado) and graphic design (RISD and Yale). At Apple Computer (1986 -1994), Dubberly was a Creative Director, managing graphic design and corporate identity; he also produced the technology-forecast film Knowledge Navigator presaging the Internet and interaction via mobile devices. At Netscape (1995 – 2000), he became Vice President of Design managing groups responsible for the design, engineering, and production of Netscape’s web services. He co-founded Dubberly Design Office (2000), a software, service, and systems design consultancy.
He has served on AIGA’s national board, the SIGGRAPH Conference Committee, and chaired ACD’s “Design for the Internet” Conference. He has taught at San Jose State, Art Center, CMU, Stanford, IIT/ID, Northeastern, and CCA. He edited a column “On Modeling” for ACM’s journal, Interactions, and has published more than 50 articles on design methods. He was elected to the ACM CHI Academy and is an AIGA Fellow.
Hürsu is a designer, design researcher and educator, and a musician. For over two decades he has worked with many leading multinational corporations as well as start-ups across various parts of the planet, helping them build their brands with powerful ideas and clear visual expressions. He has also been working as a full-time lecturer at universities in both Istanbul and Liverpool for over ten years.
Having his professional, research, and teaching interests in graphic design, interaction, user experience and new musical interfaces, Hürsu is passionate about inter-disciplinary projects, particularly ones that bring together design and sound. He holds a BID degree and two masters degrees (MSc and MMus) from Istanbul Technical University and a PhD in Industrial Design from Middle East Technical University.
Experience Designer with a demonstrated history of working in the computer software industry. Skilled in Information Design, Icon Design, Graphics, User Experience (UX) and Fashion Illustration. Strong information technology professional with a Graphic Design focused in visual design from Alsterdamm, Kommunikationsdesign.
Jan Wächter is a Senior Interaction Designer at Interactive Things. He transforms complex ideas into beautiful and engaging digital products. He enjoys crafting visualizations that make data usable and understandable for everyone.
At Interactive Things, he leads projects with a focus on holistic design systems, usable interfaces and data visualizations in the areas of consumer products, healthcare, journalism, telecommunications, and government services.
Before joining Interactive Things, he was an Art Director at Neko Interactive. An experience design agency with a focus on user experience and brand communication.
He received a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication from Basel School of Design, where he later worked as a Scientific Assistant.
Joachim’s work is characterized by an expressive, direct visual language that always comes to the point. Diverse background and interest in Asia and Europe make him quintessentially cross-cultural, between modernist and experimental. His approach is integrative, not additive: Shape and meaning turn into a coherent One, getting to the essence with consistency and simplicity — useful design need not be dry, and entertaining imagery not shallow.
Specialties: information design, logos and identity, pictograms, type design (western and kanji), illustration, character creation.
Since 1998, the majority of my work has helped nonprofits, social enterprises and for profit organizations achieve their missions by providing hands-on, objective financial expertise. I leverage my in-the-trenches CFO expertise to guide CEOs and boards on how to grow their enterprises in a strategic manner. I’ve been featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, NonProfit Times, Entrepreneur.com, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Investors’ Circle Entrepreneur Newsletter and other publications.
For three decades, creative teams and business leaders have sought the provocative vision and mentorship of Maria Giudice. After founding the pioneering experience design firm Hot Studio and leading global teams at Facebook and Autodesk, Maria’s mission today is to build the next generation of creative leaders. As a leadership coach, Maria unlocks the potential hidden in executives and the people they lead. A popular speaker at design and business conferences, Maria is also the author of three design books, including Rise of the DEO: Leadership by Design, which has been translated into several languages.
Art Center, College of Design graduate in 1980, soon abducted by Richard Saul Wurman for The Understanding Business. Astonished by maps, astounded by graphs, and absorbed by information design through a freelance career of 40 years, Michael admits an attraction for authenticity and an addiction for pattern, along with aspirations for abundant alliteration.
Nathan is a seasoned, professional strategist and serial entrepreneur as well as a pioneer in the fields of experience design, interaction design, and information design. Currently, he’s creating new tools and models for new ventures and “total value” (beyond just economic and functional value). He speaks and teaches internationally, and has authored many books (below).
Nathan is the chair of the groundbreaking Design MBA programs in design strategy at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. These programs prepare the next generation of innovation leaders for a world that is profitable, sustainable, ethical, and truly meaningful. The programs unite the perspectives of systems thinking, design and integrative thinking, business models, sustainability, and generative leadership into a holistic strategic framework.
Before academia, he was a pioneer in multi- and online media. He worked with Richard Saul Wurman at TheUnderstandingBusiness and co-founded vivid studios, a pioneering interactive media company and one of the first Web services firms on the planet. vivid’s hallmark was helping to establish and validate the field of information architecture by training an entire generation of designers in the newly emerging web industry.
Phil Hamlett is a design leader, educator, and first-generation digital native. Wherever he may be found — he unites creative minds to common purpose, utilizing the transformative power of design to cultivate good ideas. He is committed to helping people achieve their visions through the rigorous application of innovative education, design thinking, responsible leadership, and co-creation.
Phil is currently the Director of the School of Graphic Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, a unique academic institution with a large international student body and robust online program. In this setting, he does everything from teaching classes to setting the strategic agenda for the School. His students emerge as advanced design practitioners and go on to acquire positions at leading studios and technology companies in the Bay Area and around the world.
Prior to joining the Academy, Phil led design studios on both coasts, creating award-winning work for clients large and small. He is a past president of the AIGA San Francisco chapter and a former AIGA national board member. He is also an advisor to San Francisco Design Week, founder of Compostmodern and co-author of the Living Principles for Design — the means by which he guides the development of sustainable business practice within the design community. As a charter member of the Winterhouse Institute Founder’s Circle, he helps articulate the value of design education for social impact.
Ric Grefé is Design Thinker in Residence at Williams College. He is director emeritus of AIGA, the professional association for design, the oldest and largest professional association of designers in the United States representing the interests of 27,000 designers working in a variety of communication media and dimensions, ranging from type and book designers to new media and experience designers.
Ric earned a BA from Dartmouth College in economics, served in naval intelligence in Asia, reported from the Bronx County Courthouse for AP, wrote for Time magazine on business and the economy, and then earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Following an early career in urban design and public policy consulting, Ric managed the association responsible for strategic planning and legislative advocacy for public television and led a think tank on the future of public television and radio in Washington.
She gained her BA major in Industrial Design and minor in Psychology at Middle East Technical University in Ankara. She completed her MA in Visual Communication Design at Bilgi University, Istanbul. She completed her PhD on design education, specifically on design studio course, at Istanbul Technical University, and finally, her PostDoc on design thinking and professional design practice in Turkey at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton.
She taught various topics of visual communication design, such as typography and word-image relationship, animation from cel to 3D, interactive and media arts, visual/digital storytelling as well as basic design and graduation project at Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul and Kyungsung University, Busan, South Korea.
Currently, she is an Assist. Prof. in the Department of Industrial Design at Istanbul Bilgi University. She is the cofounder and colecturer/supervisor of the design studio course series Studio Sustain, where, in autumn semesters, issues of design for sustainability are tackled on specific locations in Turkey. Studio Sustain also encompasses craft practice as an alternative means of production, during spring semesters., under the brand Objects of Şişhane.
@studiosustain
@objectsofsishane
