This rebrand is a culmination of a year-long collaborative process between CitySeed’s team and Response Marketing, a New Haven based marketing agency. Over the past year, Response led CitySeed through a series of brand identity workshops and exercises to clarify our identity, audiences, and values. This process built upon CitySeed’s core belief that a just food system is foundational to a thriving community, and crystallized the need for a brand that visually reflects our food-system wide approach.

Throughout the process, CitySeed and Response Marketing strived to honor the organization’s history and identity, while also showcasing our progress. CitySeed’s main logo has been given a facelift, representing new beginnings and close bonds.

“Response Marketing was deeply in touch with CitySeed and what our needs were as a long standing organization in a period of evolution and growth,” says Ashley Kremser, Managing Director of CitySeed. “I was always impressed by the thought and rationale behind their recommendations. David and Tanya were wonderful to work with and did a stellar job of exploring our vision, history and transforming that into a cohesive brand identity that we are beyond excited to put forth. We cannot thank them enough.”

Response also developed individual logos for each of CitySeed’s core programs to demonstrate their distinct identities and fundamental connection to one another. These program-specific logos highlight unique elements about our Farmers Markets, Sanctuary Kitchen, and CitySeed Incubates. For example, Sanctuary Kitchen’s logo is inspired by the beautiful designs of a ma’amoul cookie mold, emphasizing the global and interconnected nature of our work in partnership with immigrants and refugees.

“The Sanctuary Kitchen team is so pleased with the final Sanctuary Kitchen logo. Response beautifully and uniquely illustrated our vision, and were able to capture the diversity and sense of community that Sanctuary Kitchen refugee and immigrant chefs bring,” said Sumiya Khan, Sanctuary Kitchen Manager.

“Our objective with the CitySeed refresh was to create a cohesive, down-to-earth and adaptable look for this wonderful organization,” said Tanya Kanner, Creative Director at Response Marketing. “Their passion for a just food system and commitment to community building is evident in everything that they do so it was imperative that this be reflected in their visual identity. We worked to translate their vision and mission into an aesthetic that is a nod to the organization’s original roots while allowing them to be flexible in their future brand applications.”

“Through a series of perfectly imperfect sketches and rich complimentary colors, each piece of the brand incorporates a unique visual that both ties the set together and also allows each one to stand out in its own right. The brand typography is a mixture of decorative and distressed, complimentary to the food illustrations and speaking further to the balance and equity CitySeed strives to accomplish among New Haven’s diverse communities

The best part about working with CitySeed was the chance to be a part of the incredible difference they make in our community. We’re so proud to partner with them on this project and are excited to see how the brand and their vision continues to positively impact change in our city!”, said Kanner.

CitySeed is immensely grateful to Response Marketing for their expertise and guidance throughout this process, and for providing their design services pro-bono. We are also thankful to the community members, partners, team members, Board Members, and others who shared their feedback and important insights into CitySeed’s identity and perception, which helped to shape the final product.