What’s in a name?
For us, everything.
Back in 2012 when we started down the StarkFresh journey, we knew we needed a logo and a name to convey what we were attempting to do, improve the lives the people in our community through the growing, consumption and access to fresh, healthy and affordable foods. Luckily for us, one of the students in Professor Horrisberger’s class at Walsh University undertook such a task and our name and our original logo was created.
STARK because we are here in Stark County, OH.
FRESH because we all know that the fresher the food is, the more nutrient-dense and healthy it is to consume.
The image of the city skyline with a rooster weathervane accurately conveys the mix of urban and rural farming that exists within our county. It can even be interpreted to represent urban farming or the gardening measures that StarkFresh undertakes and educates about.
The original logo was excellent, and served us very well for several years.
But the more we used it, the more we found there were some problems with it. For one, something we kept running up against was that the colors originally used were quite hard to replicate when trying to have something printed for us, leading to lots of mismatched coloring on all of our things. We did a color update on the logo but that still wasn’t enough.
The other issue we had, and arguably the largest of the two was that it looked as if STARK and FRESH were different words, especially because they were different colors, different fonts and different cases. This apparent separation also manifested whenever we would receive print or media coverage. Do you have any idea of how many times the words STARK and FRESH are used in the same article? I’ll spare you from looking because the answer is LOTS!
So we knew we had a problem with the name not being unique enough and the logo not making it clear that StarkFresh was one word, not two so we decided to reach back out to Walsh University for some help. This time, as the original student had long since graduated, we reached out for assistance from Professor Vokoun’s class for assistance. They were able to take the essence of the old logo and update it, creating a sleeker, more modern version that accurately showed that StarkFresh is one word. The new logo also simplified the color palette, making use of the logo on printed materials much easier. Black and White versions were also created to make it easier to incorporate the logo onto certain backgrounds where the green would have gotten lost.
To coincide with the logo being updated, we planned and executed a massive image overhaul for StarkFresh’s website. We were fortunate enough the spend a weekend during last summer with the Cleveland Givecamp where a dedicated team of volunteers gave up 48 hours of their lives to make the website a reality. We also took that time to streamline all of our social media pages and standardized our t-shirt offerings with the new logo. We are quite pleased with the outcome.
The journey that it has been to get the logo “just right” symbolizes in a way what StarkFresh is all about. We may not always have all of the answers but are willing to adapt and change as the situation requires of us. By leaning on our community partners to assist with our mission, we are able to accomplish much more than we ever could alone. To us, the name StarkFresh gives remembrance to all of the hard work and dedication given by our community partners and volunteers, that is why for us, a name means everything.
