Tilt was fortunate to be apart of this years Insight NACS event which is a week long series of events and study tours. This year Insight went from Dublin to London to Paris to study the European convenience market and enable people from all over the world to share best practice. We spent our time mainly in London and then in Paris, since there weren’t enough hours in the day! Click to see the full schedule.
We have been working with Kwik Trip Stores in the midwest in America since 2007 and with our close knit relationship to the food industry, we have frequented other convenience chains globally to understand a few key characteristics for improvement:
Service
Product Offering
Unique Selling Point
Design / Layout
Sustainability
We have learned more than we ever thought we would have about the world of convenience, but it is (as we have found) the future direction of food delivery, so we have embraced the model and are furthering our expertise in this industry.
Dan Munford from Insight is a convenience expert. He has toured the world and understands the principals of point of service, sales, offerings, design, location and now he is gaining an understanding of sustainability. We have a learned a lot from Dan and his company and we are thrilled by this past opportunity. Tilt was brought in to be an extra helping hand on the first day of the study tour and to do a special tour of Westfield Mall. In London, Tilt has been fast tracked into the world of retail and we have researched for the past 18 months, everything there is to know about style of foodservice (catering), brands and food marketing in order to feel integrated into the market. This was our chance to show what we have learned.
Since the beginning of time food has been hunted and gathered. We were not farmers by trade, we were foragers and learned farming. In more recent years we have furthered this progression and the concept of farming has been taken off of the land and into a lab. In Darina Allen’s Foraging book, she teaches how to go back to the basics to begin to take care of our bodies and our planet better. It is such a beautiful and picturesque pastime, illuminating the notion of health and neglecting practicality. Perhaps at some point we will meet the 360º start of that loop, reverting back to foraging, but for the moment we are going to concentrate on food from the lab. More specifically – how to understand where our food comes from in today’s world to make calculated choices for ourselves and ignore clever food marketing.
This week in the news, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) has declared that they are getting a new name, “Corn Sugar.” This poses an interesting issue from a marketing stance; is this going to sway customers into purchasing more products with HFCS and is that such a bad thing? The long and short answer to both questions is yes and yes. It is a simple fact that when GMO’s or chemically produced foods are marketed they become easier to say and easier to distinguish. The product becomes new, desirable and sexy to the consumer and as consumers we trust our government and the food associations, ensuring our health and our safety in all foods, so it makes it okay to consume these new products. But can we can continue to consume and to trust?
Is HFCS bad for you? The FDA says it is just fine (according to the HFCS website). The company itself, the High Fructose Corn Syrup Association, believes that the name Corn Sugar “best communicates that consumers understand it has the same calories as sugar, the same sweetness as sugar and about the same fructose level,” said trade group president Audrae Erickson. Based on an article in the LA times, the decision to offer manufacturers an alternative name to use was prompted by consumers, not consumer product makers, but Audrae acknowledged that the approval from the FDA would have a “spillover benefit” for food companies.
Maggie Doyle from Blinknow.org knows what her dream is: to make it so that every kid in the world has access to education, a warm bed and a meal everyday. She is actually DOing something about it.
The Do Lectures were this past week in Cardigan, Wales. It was an opportunity to network with creatives and to take part in experiencing and learning from people that are doing some great things. The Do Lectures is not a repeat venue. They only allow you to go every other year so more people can benefit from the DO.
I learned about DO from my friend Andy Middleton who runs an adventure company in St. David’s called TYF. He was one of the founding partners and the moderator for the event. Andy’s ability to rule a room really helped to make this experience. We all got in on Thursday mid-day and spent a few hours getting acclimated and organised before the first 4 lectures started. It was inspiring, intellectual and fun to listen to each one.
Designers Drinks & Social Change or DDSC is a group of fun and energetic folks in the design industry that are looking to make a different. Each month we have a topic and share best practices and advise on opportunities happening in the world. We work together to formulate solutions to ultimately create change for the planet.
Join us for this month’s talk:
When: October 21, 2010 at 6pm EST, 5pm CST, 3pm PST Where: http://www.tokbox.com/tiltstudioinc/ddsc Topic: “Branding an Eco Army”
How do we increase the momentum of the greener design movement?
Is working with corporate entities necessary? Or is just inciting change from within the profession enough?
Who are some examples of rebel green designers?
Our guest speaker this month is Noah Scalin, teacher for Design Rebels and Studio Owner:
A graduate of the NYU Tisch School of The Arts, Noah is a lifelong activist (whose first protest marches were spent in a stroller and then on roller skates).
The former art director of independent movie studio Troma Entertainment and international clothing company Avirex, Noah used his experience with youth marketing and passion for grassroots activism to create his own ethically driven firm.
Noah’s work at ALR has gained international exposure in over two-dozen books and is frequently featured in design publications, including How Magazine’s “Good Company” cover story Jan/Feb 2006. Noah also developed a course on socially conscious design for Virginia Commonwealth University and founded a long running community supported agriculture group in Richmond, Virginia.
SKULLS, a book based on his award-winning blog Skull-A-Day, was published in October 2008 by Lark Books.
A couple of weeks ago TILT connected with Foodcycle… Britain’s own solution for foodwaste reduction. Kelvin Cheung has initiated a revolution with his idea to take grocery and market waste that is still edible and turn it into meals for the homeless, the community and other parties that would value the otherwise “binned” food. He has set it up to be a franchise, asking school groups, community groups and the like to start the effort and initiate the concept in their local areas. He provides training and ideas for making it happen.
Sourced Market at St. Pancras Station has been a great meeting place for Tilt for the last couple of months. It is warm, inviting, centrally located between the Tube, the National Rail System and the International Rail System and it is a food that has a known ‘source.’ Coincidentally, I had mentioned to one of my friends if there were any people in the food industry that he knew in London and he mentioned one of the owners of Sourced Market. Obviously I was thrilled at the introduction and the opportunity to meet. This guy and his partner really have something here.
We here at Tilt are working on a pitch to Meatless Monday’s to give their brand and logo a fresh face. Above you can see the current brand and our pitch version on the right. We believe in the concept of going meatless as often as possible to curb green house gas emissions. The left is the existing logo and the right is our recommendation on a new mark.
A lot of people look at where our food industry has brought us in the last 30 years and the things needed to change are overwhelming. As consumers we are told that it is our responsibility to demand better quality food. We are told to buy organic, grow our own garden, not to eat meat, eliminate fast food, and the list goes on. Sometimes making these life changes is quite difficult, whether it is a monetary issue, parents with picky children or convenience and a lack of time to make real food at home.
Thanks to Novella Carpenter (and Anne Draddy for telling me about her), Oakland can now claim fame to one of the most talked about US City Farms (well at least of the new millennium). Farm City is based on her story of living in the historic and tainted “Ghost-Town” in an undesirable area of Oakland with a 100 yard plot in her backyard that she essentially squatted on for the last decade. She built an inner city farm complete with pigs, chickens, rabbits and honey bees and her stories are wonderful.
Designers Drinks & Social Change or DDSC is a group of fun and energetic folks in the design industry that are looking to make a different. Each month we have a topic and share best practices and advise on opportunities happening in the world. We work together to formulate solutions to ultimately create change for the planet.
Join us for this month’s talk:
When: September 16th, 2010 at 6pm EST, 5pm CST, 3pm PST Where: http://www.tokbox.com/tiltstudioinc/ddsc Topic: “Design Tithing: Making a living, finding time to make a difference”
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or DDSC is a group of fun and energetic folks in the design industry that are looking to make a different. Each month we have a topic and share best practices and advise on opportunities happening in the world. We work together to formulate solutions to ultimately 
