Rainwater Harvesting From The Roof

Rachael Wussow rachaelwussow.com [email protected]

Portfolio Project Profiles Burt’s Bees

RainWater Solutions

Larry’s Beans

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Created three bi-annual wholesale and merchandising catalogs and the company’s first Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

Developed rebrand identity including messaging, product naming, direct mail, trade show booth signage, advertisements, web templates and point of sale materials.

Implemented comprehensive brand identity and sub-brand identities on packaging, signage, and promotion.

After Burt’s Bees was acquired by Clorox, a bunch of stores yanked them off the self. Bad call. Burt’s Bees’ sustainability leadership is way ahead of other personal care brands. They offset their entire power bill with renewable energy. Ditto for their travel. All of their waste vegetable oil (over 80 tons of it) is converted to biofuels. Their salary incentives are tied to sustainability. They’re seriously committed to PCR packaging. They’re transparent about natural content including where they fall short.

RainWater Solutions develops rain water harvesting systems, from manufacturing recycled plastic rain barrels to custom systems, collecting thousands of gallons. Founders, Mike and Lynn Ruck are as passionate about water harvesting as they are geeky about making it work. One of their key innovations is the design of barrels that can nest for vastly more efficient shipping (believe it or not, most rain barrels don’t do this, resulting in tons of carbon emitted just to ship big casks of air).

Larry’s Beans is constantly searching for new ways to make the world better. The brand is based on filtering all information through the personality of Larry himself, who definitely takes a wide open approach to life. Key to the brand’s perspective is functioning as an ambassador brand for sustainability, letting people know that doing the right thing is infinitely more fun and worthwhile than the status quo. Larry himself is deeply involved in the company’s growth strategies.

Burt’s Bees Self-mailing wholesale and merchandising catalog distributed nationwide. 2009 Catalog

Branding of the catalog reflects an in-house shift toward a more open and clean aesthetic.

Burt’s Bees Nested self-mailing wholesale and merchandising catalogs distributed nationwide. Use of 2008 Catalog

proprietary woodcuts, border treatments and packaging color palettes. Perforated pages allow for second use as informational posters in stores.

Burt’s Bees 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Report

The company’s first account assessing their path to becoming a fully sustainable business. Done in collaboration with journalist/novelist Steven Kotler. Well received by domestic and international partners as “solid, impressive, and well done.”

THEY’RE MADE FOR EACH OTHER. As anyone with an ordinary rain barrel soon discovers, a garden hose is too small to manage overflow. The Moby has two big fat 1.25” openings and a superbendible hose that says “bring it on.”

I WAS RUBBISH IN A PRIOR LIFE!

(100% RECYCLED PLASTIC)

rainwater solutions Trade show booth

By highlighting the key differentiators of RainWater Solutions from its competitors, these playful posters draw trade show goers to the booth to hear more of the story and scope out a model rainwater collection system.

rainwater solutions Direct mail postcards

Target audience mailings to municipalities, garden stores and rainwater enthusiasts. Visuals reinforce the lightheartedness of this brand contrasting the serious and technical nature of other rainwater collection companies.

rainwater solutions Web templates

Continuing the rebrand onto the web, the design simplifies complex technical specifications into clear and straight-forward facts and interactions. Beta site: www.rainwatersolutions.com

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Larry’s Beans Collateral

Implementing this charismatic brand into a range of materials, utilizing mediums that the brand already touches. Each messaging opportunity is creating equity in the brand’s mission to lead as a socially and environmentally sustainable company as well as know for their coffee roasting and blending prowess.

Larry’s Beans Coffee Blend Labels

Woodstock Morning Blend is a seasonal blend that is only available between spring and fall Shakori Hills music festivals. Design captures the spirit and vibrance of summer music festivals and the symbolism of Woodstock into the Larry’s Beans mascot and his surroundings.

Shakori Hills

COFFEE BARN

Fa ir T radffee, e O rgan ic Cs oa d ay! h ou r fresh-braeswteind’ slow-ro !

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Shakori Hills Festival Coffee Barn Signage and promotion

Larry’s Beans co-sponsors the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival Coffee Barn. We fused brand elements of Larry’s Beans with the whimsical and artistic flair of this farm preservation benefit festival to create an identity system used on Coffee Barn materials. All designed signage was hand-painted by local artisans.

Larry’s Cupping Lab Sub-brand identity

By branding the cupping lab, we bring out the science and artisanship that happens underneath the charismatic parent brand. Visuals in this sub-brand reference these characteristics that are less visible in the Larry’s Beans brand.

E * FREE COFFEE * FREE COFFEE * FRE Experience an

Authentic

“Cupping” is how roasters like us choose what coffee beans to import. We also use it as an essential tool to figure out our roast protocols and blends. Basically, it’s a standardized way to evaluate the near infinite variations of a coffee’s sensory qualities. These are the attributes we and everyone else following SCAA guidelines look for (SCAA is the Speciality Coffee Association of America):

Fragrance/Aroma.

Evaluated at 2 points—first while sniffing the dry grounds before pouring water, then afterwards while “breaking the crust.” Don’t worry, we’ll show you what that means.

Acidity.

And as an added twist, we shall do a

A regrettable word, because it doesn’t sound very tasty, but acidity contributes to the coffee’s liveliness, sweetness and fresh-fruit quality character. It’s experienced best immediately upon sipping. Like most things with coffee, there is a “sweet spot” where it’s just right. Too much dominates the subtle flavors, too little can make a coffee boring.

BREW METHOD COMPARSION. Sample coffees from Latin America, West Africa and Southeast Asia according to international direct infusion cupping protocals. We’ll also taste coffees brewed in a variety of methods such as the French press and drip method.

Body.

CUPPING LAB

The coffee will be free—the information will be priceless. Saturday, Sept.8, 1 PM at the Dripolator, Black Mountain 221 West State St., Black Mountain, NC Sunday, Sept. 9, 12 Noon, at the Dripolator, Asheville 144 Biltmore Ave, Asheville, NC

This word is more fun. And more intuitive. It’s based on the tactile feeling of the liquid in your mouth. Coffee aficionados tend to love heavy body and rate it highly. But lighter bodied coffees are quite pleasant and well-loved in the real world.

Flavor.

This means the coffee’s principle character. A combination of all your taste bud sensations—including what are called “retronasal aromas”, which travel from mouth to nose and greatly affect flavor. Overall, flavor is evaluated on intensity, quality and complexity. To judge flavor, it’s best to slurp vigorously so your whole palette gets involved (really, even coffee snobs use the word “slurp” in this context).

Sweetness.

This refers to actual sweetness and overall fullness of flavor. It’s a hard one to explain, but trust us, you’ll know it when you taste it.

Clean Cup.

This refers to what the SCAA terms “a lack of interfering negative impressions from first ingestion to final aftertaste.” It’s really about the total experience, from beginning to end.

Balance.

This refers to the total taste experience—how it all works together. If one attribute is good by itself, but overpowers another, then it’s poorly balanced.

Aftertaste.

We prefer the word “finish” because it sounds nicer, but this is the coffee word. It refers to the sensations that stay in your mouth and nose after you’ve actually swallowed your coffee. Like a good wine or cognac, a great coffee should linger with your senses.

Overall.

This is just what it says. The overall score. The Real Deal is that coffee is a complex, sensual and tasty pleasure with a stunning amount of possibilities that depend on where beans are grown, how they’re processed, how they’re roasted and how they’re prepared.

Our additional twist on cuppings.

The way you make your coffee greatly affects the experience. One’s not necessarily better than the other, just different. (Because one way you’ll never drink your coffee is the standard cupping method of pouring hot water directly onto coffee grounds and slurpin’ it up.) So when we do cuppings with folks, we also like to brew a few different ways, so we can see how coffee tastes different in a French press, or as espresso or as drip and so on.

To learn more about Larry’s Beans coffees and its alternative fuel habit, visit larrysbeans.com For tips about saving the world, go to our sustainabilityschool.com To learn more about Larry’s Beans (and to place an order for our ridiculously inexpensive “Coffee is like Kissing” brew guide), visit larrysbeans.com. For tips about saving the world, go to our sustainabilityschool.com.

Larry’s Cupping Lab Collateral

Branding is applied on cupping equipment, educational and promotional materials that carry nuance from the Larry’s Beans brand, yet maintains a distinct, more scholarly, visual identity.