A collective of thinkers and doers for innovative food solutions

Food & Beyond

Visual identity, website design

Client project (Accenture Song)

2019

Food & Beyond is a collective of thinkers and doers who want to make a positive impact for people, the planet and business with innovative food solutions.

Climate change and ever-growing consumer expectations place food at the intersection of trends shaping our world. The Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) reached out to us to co-create a platform and a brand for a future-looking ecosystem around food encompassing innovative food products, technologies, processes and services.

We explored the future of food together with innovators of the industry to make sure everything we did reflected the needs of the people VTT wanted to serve. We did field research, user interviews and collaborative workshops to help us get there.

The outcome is network of trailblazers: an online platform to make the connections and to provide inspiration and advice. The brand experience and identity were created to match the ambitions of the ecosystem.

Scope of work
: Co-creation workshop, brand foundation, visual identity, website

Background

VTT is a visionary research, development and innovation partner who drives sustainable growth and tackles the biggest global challenges of our time. One of the business areas they are focusing on is becoming a globally recognized visionary leader on food related business, including innovative food products, technologies, processes and services.

Sustainability challenges demand food systems to learn new skills and ways of producing and distributing food. Agile food technologies and processes enable new food business opportunities responding to consumer and societal needs.

There is a clear need for a platform, entity and a brand that would unite all the players and start building bridges by opening the channels of communication. This was our main task. To be able to build a strong ecosystem around food innovation in Finland, we have to boost cross-sectoral co-work and strengthen existing collaborations and partnerships. This needs to happen while encouraging visionary thinking and act as a catalyzer to create out-of-the-box solutions within value chain actors and generate joint benefits instead of individual benefits.

Creative approach

We set out to deliver beyond the brand foundation, visual identity and a website. One of the key drivers was to consider how to scale the brand to other ecosystems by embracing system thinking.

We explored the field and the key players around future food to find out what is happening and what really matters to them. We used design research methods, user interviews and co-creative workshops to ensure voices of potential and existing collaborators were reflected. The aim was to unite researchers, scientists, financiers, universities and companies to create relevant innovations for the future.

Co-creation workshop with internal / external stakeholders

Co-creation exercise for brand foundation and visual identity

Food ecosystem goals

• Capitalize on existing testbeds and create new ones to quickly test the new business models.

• Make a model where all companies are able to build their R&D to meet the global challenges.

• Boost sustainable food production through cross-sectoral business development (food, equipment manufacturing, industrial biotechnology, ICT, IoT, HealthTech, logistics etc.) with global relevance (export potential).

• Make Finland globally recognized visionary leader on food related business, including innovative food products, technologies, processes and services.

Execution and results

Out of our research, interviews and workshops, we managed to gather considerable amount of insights, while simultaneously collecting feedback and input to build the brand experience and vision strategy. All the potential and existing collaborators were also invited to participate in concepting the visual identity and name for the ecosystem.

We focused on purpose, personality, values, promise, design principles, visual identity, high-level project road map and a direction for future service.

At the end, the ecosystem was named “Food & Beyond” to communicate the collaborative nature and inclusiveness of the platform. The focus should not be on “what is” but more on “what could be”. Always taking the proactive approach towards innovation and challenging ways of doing things.

Since the whole design process was aiming to include all the possible participant groups in the ecosystem, we felt it was only right to expand this thinking to the brand itself. A network of diverse people making things real for a better future of food, that puts humans at the centre and uses co-creative approach.