Mycopia Mushrooms : Print Design / Advertising + Marketing
This is a freelance project I did for Gourmet Mushrooms Inc. Contracted to design a new trifold brochure from an existing one, along with 3 new campaign posters within 3 weeks’ time. The large-scale print posters showing imagery of the mushrooms cultivated with informative text and company slogans and taglines.
Gourmet Mushrooms Inc. (Mycopia) is based in Sonoma County, California due to its mild temperatures and proximity to the San Francisco Market. They are committed to growing the finest quality mushrooms while using sustainable practices. Pioneer growers of fresh culinary mushrooms since 1977 when they were the first to commercially cultivate shiitakes in the United States.
I began with wireframing each of the 4 files, designing possibilities for each. From there, I started with the brochure as I was given an original copy. I was told to retain all information, text, and imagery with a refreshed redesign. I added some pictures and sketches of mushrooms as the original was rather bland. The posters were a completely different story, all being created whole cloth. I was asked to create a tree/web of the mushrooms they’re known for growing, scientific names alongside common names, and pictures of those that were most popular. The other two posters were mostly taglines, important historical information about Gourmet Mushrooms Inc, and marketing pictures. I wasn’t sent pictures from the actual company until very late into the process and thus spent a lot of time sourcing and licensing images for use. I also created a vector object of mycelium to use as a background for part of one of the posters. In order to generate reusable marketing materials for the company, I made many transparencies of their products in PS.
The trifold brochure was the simplest, a redesign. If I hadn’t been told to retain all original components, I would have removed some of the text to allow for more white space and would have updated some of the pictures. The posters were the most difficult, particularly the mushroom tree/web as it was hard to organize 30+ mushrooms onto an artboard at the specified size. Overall, as one of my first freelance jobs for a bigger company, I learned a lot. I was hired by a friend of a friend and the entire situation was a mess, but I was given the opportunity to learn about myself and my process, as well as what I would and wouldn’t do again, how to manage situations and communicate needs.
I sent all the working files and PDFs to the company as opposed to taking them to the printer myself as they had wanted to manage that. At the time, I wasn’t contracted to make mockups of the work either, though I would have loved to see how it all looked printed and at the actual advertising campaign.