Closed Loop Cooking

Closed Loop Cooking is a platform designed with community in mind. The site is a resource index intended to help folx reduce food waste and single use kitchen items through plant-based recipes, how-to’s, and conversations. Taking the original blog into an engaging food media platform challenged me to think about sustainability in a new way.

The problem

How can we create positive behavior change in the kitchen through the CLC website? It’s important to provide meaningful content that is contextualized as a resource index. How can color, pattern, illustration, and tone inform that?

Branding

I was inspired by the aesthetics of vintage cookbooks, high contrast, rounded typefaces, and rich jewel tones of kitchens past. If my grandmother knew how to use a computer, I’d hope it would inspire visions of her own childhood victory garden. 

The off-center logo nods to unconventional cooking practices and the condensed secondary badge logo offers a versatile option for use throughout the site and social applications. A modern counterpart to the vintage anchor of the primary logo.

The site

My background in illustration, color design, and pattern design informed much of the current layout. I want people to approach sustainable eating as an accessible, joyful endeavor. There’s a lot of guilt-inducing language associated with sustainability which can often create overwhelm and decision paralysis in anyone trying to make a difference. I made it a point to use an educational tone throughout the site, offering guidance and mentorship in the kitchen.