Cover Crop

Farm Animals Issue

Roles — Independent Project: identity, art direction, content curation, editorial design

Tools — InDesign, Photoshop

Timeframe — 11 weeks

Problem

The challenge was to create a magazine that would foster a deeper understanding of modern food systems, as well as gain practical knowledge of how to easily integrate sustainable practices. In order to speak as an authority and get farming in the limelight, I curated content that felt authentic but elevated. At Cover Crop’s most influential state, it empowers readers to act with more awareness and social responsibility and feel more connected to the world they live in.

Background

Cover Crop was inspired from the time I spent last summer volunteering on a local, organic farm. After conducting competitor analysis of farming and foodie magazines I discovered two types of magazines. The first type were too practical and only spoke to the farming community. The second type were upscale foodie magazines with no sense of where the food came from. I took this gap as a missed opportunity and set out to find where farming and everyday citizens could intersect.

Solution

Published quarterly, Cover Crop is a magazine dedicated to sharing the intersections of farm life, sustainability, community, and culture. Each issue is dedicated to one theme that is explored through symbiotic and controversial relationships. Every issue is wholly devoted to connecting people to the food world they live in by engaging them in thoughtful conversations about farming.

"The form of the farm must answer to the farmer’s feeling for the place, its creatures, and its work. It is a never-ending effort of fitting together many diverse things. It must incorporate the lifecycle and the fertility cycles of animals. It must bring crops and livestock into balance and mutual support. It must be a pattern on the ground and in the mind. It must be at once ecological, familial, economic, agricultural and neighborly."

— Wendell Berry

"The form of the farm must answer to the farmer’s feeling for the place, its creatures, and its work. It is a never-ending effort of fitting together many diverse things. It must incorporate the lifecycle and the fertility cycles of animals. It must bring crops and livestock into balance and mutual support. It must be a pattern on the ground and in the mind. It must be at once ecological, familial, economic, agricultural and neighborly."

— Wendell Berry

Post Mortem

If I could further expand the magazine I would include a larger meet your farmer section. This would enable more people across the U.S. to connect to small-scale farmers, butchers, and ranchers. I would also want to include a whole new section that showcases how to successful do small scale farming in the city. This could be a great opportunity to further connect rural and urban areas through localizing farming and food.