Ms. Chach Sikes

Food & Nutrition Iconathon in Los Angeles

We had another great Iconathon in Los Angeles on Saturday August 13, 2011.

In Iconathons, designers, public policy people, coders and other interested citizens get together to develop new civic symbols for the public domain. These symbols can be used in new web applications, infographics, signage, policy documents, maps and anywhere else that we need symbols. These symbols also are critical in reaching across communication barriers such as language & cognition.

In this Iconathon initiative, we are developing new symbols for a number of themes. The theme of the Los Angeles Iconathon was Food & Nutrition.

The day started with Amanda Shaffer (Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College) giving a great presentation about food issues in Los Angeles, and suggestions on how new symbols could help provide more access to healthy foods.

Los Angeles has some of worst food deserts in the country. Obesity is a serious problem, as is access to supermarkets, with East LA having the least number of supermarkets per person. Food is mostly found in convenience stores, and these stores do not often have fresh produce. I learned from one of the event attendees, Rosanita Ratcliff, that some children in South LA have never seen squash, cucumbers or strawberries.

We also learned that the WIC (women, infants and children) program has historically not provided fresh produce to these mothers in need, but there are new initiatives to get fresh local produce into these stores. Amanda Schaffer said that a helpful new symbol would be one that indicates "locally grown," an easy to recognize symbol that could be used in connection with food education initiatives. Similarly, if we had recognizable symbols for Farmer's Markets, Community Gardens, and different types of food stores, we could coordinate & map some of the various efforts of different food policy & food justice initiatives. (Or additionally, in conjunction with projects like the Code for America Farmer's Market API or with the Open Food Data Standard project)

At one point during the event, Max Kanter of Food Forward excitedly proclaimed (something to this effect), "These symbols could actually be used and be out there in the world helping people find & access healthy food." Designer Christine Geronaga said that this event combined the two things she was most passionate about: food & good design, and also that events like these keep her design wits sharp.

We were all very excited & emotional in having an the opportunity to give back and hope to help improve communications about healthy food initiatives in Los Angeles and other cities. At one point in the day, I looked around in complete awe that everyone had come together for such a good cause.

What happens next?

A group of about 6 volunteer illustrators are developing the sketches that were 'ready' into vector images. They will work with Edward Boatman (co-founder of the Noun Project) to get these symbols polished.

One of the challenges is to make symbols that work together as a set. We are seriously considering the idea that all of the symbols made through this Iconathon City Tour will be part of the very first "Municipal Symbol Suite" that we will be released into the public domain at some point later this fall through the Noun Project's website. This symbol suite can contain all of the finished & polished symbols that everyone worked on at all of the Iconathons in the different cities. :)