Archive for June, 2010

Chipotle Veggs Out Locally

Food retailer Chipotle has an online animated map showing the locality and seasonality of produce used in their menu items.

Though buried at the bottom of the page (click ‘integrity’, then scroll down), the graphic is a good educational tool: teaching about seasonality in produce.

From the perspective of informational design, it would be great to see it containing more specific data (rather than just being a visual description): I’d like to see what % of the onion used in Midwestern stores is local in the winter.

Regardless, it’s a good place to start communicating sustainability to consumers.

SEASONAL LOCAL VEGETABLES ANIMATION

Straw Bale Installation at MN Landscape Arboretum

A straw-bale bench and accompanying info-graphic is on exhibit all summer at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. As part of the Powerhouse Plants exhibit showcasing the super-human powers of plants.

Straw Bale bench with information graphic

Entitled ‘Waves of [Multifunctional] Grain,’ this graphic installation shows the life-cycle of grain crops like wheat, barley and rye – and how the waste product from the production of these food-grains (the straw) can be used as a local and sustainable building material.
With the information graphic, we wanted to communicate the potential for a closed-loop system inherent within this plant’s life-cycle: We grow a crop, eat the grain, and can use the waste straw for building and insluation. A perfect cycle.

INFO-GRAPHIC SHOWS THE PROCESS AND BENEFITS