 I work for the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany. We are a mid-sized consumer food cooperative specializing in natural and organic and local foods. We were started in 1976, like many co-ops around that time. Basically it started as 12 members who got together and decided that they wanted to be able to purchase goods and products that were raised organically at a discounted price and they realized by pooling their resources they would be able to get a better discount on their food. Over time it grew. We were incorporated in later 1976. Since then we've gone through two different locations and are continuing to grow as consumer awareness around the natural food industry grows as well. My role at the co-op is the marketing and brand manager for the organization. I oversee basically the interior design of the store, our brand image which includes our logo, printed materials, communications. I also oversee website, social media, advertising, etc. I think it's difficult to create a feeling or mood that accurately represents the ideals of the co-op. What I've done is I've taken a look at what has happened and tried to balance that with what our current members and shoppers need. It's difficult because we've covered a number of years. So trying to incorporate as much of the old mix that with the new has been the most successful for us. In doing that you also want to create imagery and messaging that is comfortable but also maybe pushes it a tiny bit to keep the user engaged and excited and wanting to find out more. This store was a little bit easier to have an idea of what the end result would be because we started from scratch and I was able to work with the architects all along the way. I was able to really get a grasp of what the physical location would look like and be able to plan it out as we went. So I was able to see the opportunities that they came up and also be able to influence some opportunities that might be able to be built in. You know we have always been a community-owned and operated organization. Keeping it homey for our members was of a top priority and again balancing that with sort of our newer customers was the challenge and making it work for everybody and making sure that our members in the greater community feel comfortable in their store is a priority. I think our products are set to an extent by what the consumer demand is. So you know we can continue to curate sort of our categories but in terms of our products you know really we might pick up on trends, introduce them, see how they do and then be reactive based on that. We do have certain product guidelines as our organization. Food product guidelines that need to be met in order to be on our shelves so it does automatically limit some other products. In terms of more design aspects or color I think what we were trying to do with that was to produce a really interesting environment to interact in. We used a lot of sort of funkier colors which represented our roots. Well at the same time making them, how do I say a little more classy, attempting to keep the funk while making our organization really shine. We did a lot of dark wood which we thought brought in a nice natural rustic feel to it. The other thing about using the darker color wood it allows our products to stand out from that. So at the same time that we're trying to sell our brand in terms of on our walls and on our shelves it's still important that our products stand from. Our Eat in Cafe area really more accurately shows our differences as an organization. We didn't go with the prefab tables. I worked with a local restoration company to create tables that had a bit of history. The table tops were from beams in the old barn at Moxies which is a local ice cream place and the legs were made from an old army base in Schenectady. It really tied into that. In addition to that we kept the funky colors and as I said food quality in our organization is a priority. So we did a large mural on the wall in that cafe that simply says eat good food, nice colors and hopefully people see the thought put behind them. Measuring success in this realm is difficult. So well because it's art you know we can do it by by simply looking at you know increased sales. How many new people have joined us but that also reflects multiple facets of our organization. So I think it all comes down to that feeling when you walk through the store and you see other people walking through the store and they're happy and that's really how you measure success in a more visual means. The design process is a really exciting part because I like to really start off as non-committal. I really do best collaging the real world together so I'll get an idea from somewhere that I noticed somewhere else and I can't really explain it much better but when I'm in the moment and I have a goal that needs to be achieved I become obsessed in a good way with it and the products fall together. How do I narrow down choices? That's a difficult one. Narrowing down choices basically comes down to how the pieces fit together. I'm really sloppy I can't use the computer a lot to do this. I need paint chips, I need pieces of woodwood stain, I need shelving swatches. That way everything just easily goes away and stops and you can alienate different products and really see the success against each other and decide what's the most important and move on.