Chez Panisse's 43rd birthday just passed quietly this year on August 28th. The big celebrations took place on the restaurant's 40th. I was brought in by the extraordinary Samin Nosrat for a special event "Eating for Education." It was an effort to bring a national awareness to Edible Education, and Alice thought to use the restaurant's big birthday as an inspiration for the event. I designed a logo, postcard, and flyer for restaurants across the country to educate and raise money for their own local edible schoolyards.
The 40th birthday celebration was quite massive, with many different events at many venues, and over a stretch of time. There were dinners all over the Bay Area, the restaurant itself had a open sidewalk cafe and the Berkeley Art Museum held a huge event for the public.
I had great fun designing the signage for the sidewalk cafe at Chez Panisse. Alice wanted the typography to look and feel like the Bar de la Marine from the original Marcel Pagnol trilogies. I also was asked to do a cheeky temporary tattoo design for the Berkeley Museum event. It read: I am edible. I added to the design Eat me, in Latin. I used the tattoo to introduce the newly re-designed identity of the Edible Schoolyard Project, done by Green Dragon Office, as well as an image of the radish that Alice uses as her personal symbol. The tattoos were handed out to hundreds of people at the event.
