Client
Mimetic
Date Completed
Oct 2021
My Role
Stakeholder Interviews
Identity Design
Wireframing
UX Copy
Front End Build
Field Research
Research Plan
The Team Members
Co-Founder
Event Organizer
Client
Mimetic
Date Completed
Oct 2021
My Role
Stakeholder Interviews
Identity Design
Wireframing
UX Copy
Front End Build
Field Research
Research Plan
The Team Members
Co-Founder
Event Organizer
Economic development firm KRNLS wanted to attract funding for their Agtech collaborative Mimetic. To demonstrate the collaborative’s market potential, KRNLS launched a field study tour to 3 local farms. I conducted Mimetic’s initial stakeholder interviews, in addition to crafting its brand identity, website, and long term research plan.
KRNLS wanted to connect Pittsburgh’s technology industry to agricultural economies in Western Pennsylvania. Initial interviews in the robotics and AI industries indicated high interest, but foundations remained reluctant to fund rurally-focused initiatives.
To demonstrate the value of increased investment, the team planned a flashy gathering of stakeholders from across the region. As it turns out, the largest obstacles preventing rural and urban partnerships are the very obstacles dividing rural and urban humans. More on that in a moment.
4 longform interviews
1 logo and brand identity
4 adaptive mid-fidelity wireframes
6 pages/newsletters copy written
1 website
3 farm field visits
1 multi-year research plan
Bridging art and natural artifact, the mimetic logo went through many iterations of sketches to bring out both butterfly and the letter M.
To launch the AgTech collaborative, the team planned a splashy networking event to be publicized with an even splashier logo. I started with a naming exercise for the initiative. Botanical witticisms gave way to the idea of Müllerian mimicry, a phenomenon when species imitate each other for mutual benefit.
I chose the adjectival mimetic for the collaborative’s name, embodying both scientific precision and nature’s innate innovation. I translated Dr. Muller’s butterfly illustrations into a number of logo iterations, emphasizing a symmetry built from slightly irregular pieces. The nod to agriculture was quiet, allowing room for the initiative to grow in scope.
With logo and pitch script in hand, I started preliminary phone calls with farmers to gauge their interest in the collaborative. Three conversations in, the real challenge became apparent. Smack in the middle of harvest season, farmers could not drive an hour to meet hypothetical business contacts. Additionally, many were concerned about technological encroachment, and a catered hobnobbing event did not restore their trust. As for my impressionist butterfly logo? Not remotely identifiable by our agricultural stakeholders.
How many foods can you make with the simplest shapes? Repeat the same process with hardware. Where do the shapes merge?
With the farmers’ pragmatism whirring through my mind, I began to rethink the everyday symbols of industry. Berries and bolts, pears and lightbulbs, these symbols are essentially the same. This common visual language reveals what is shared, and equally, what is fundamental. As building blocks of our collaborative, these elements became mimetic’s own periodic table. The grid-based design allowed for ultimate digital flexibility, which I configured across platforms.
Courtesy: Who Cooks for You Farm
As for mimetic’s launch event, I dug back to my anthropology roots. If farmers can’t leave their farms, can we observe the very challenges preventing their participation in the collaborative? I landed on a field research tour (literally!), where our team and members of the public could engage in rich contextual observation while honoring farmer’s logistical demands.
As the team organized the tour, I quickly built out adaptive wireframes for mimetic’s first website. From corn field or corner cubicle, attendees needed to immediately understand why mimetic mattered, how to get involved, and then register. The site’s monochromatic green limited distractions, while its single, menu-less page ensured users couldn’t get lost.
A few micro-interactions injected a quiet whimsy into the otherwise minimal aesthetic. To enable initiative staff to edit the content, I constructed the site in Wix’s EditorX development platform, whose CSS-based responsivity is simplified through a relatively snappy interface.
After an all-day tour of 3 very different farms, 15 stakeholders formed 45 new relationships. Mimicking the farmer’s routine provided fundamentally richer observations, and the farmers felt confident in describing challenges ranging from labor shortages and equipment financing to disconnectivity, climate, and pests (apparently the key to making millions is inventing a truly deer deterrent fence!).
One farm wants to explore a recyclable anti-weed cover, while a startup is looking to find new testing fields for their greenhouse robotics. Based on the post event survey, 83% of participants would join the next event, and the most popular next iteration is a speaker series, a networking session, or another tour. In the battle of urban vs. rural, time remains the winner, yet there’s nothing quite like breaking bread to bring people together.
After the successful pilot event, I co-developed a multi-year research plan to attain government funding. We structured a 2-year proposal combining psychographic quantitative analysis with a demand survey and long form stakeholder interviews.
The project’s differentiating component was a series of community charettes and activation events. Based on principles of human centered design, the charrettes would gauge residents’ challenges and resources. We planned an additional round of networking events such as pitch competitions, farm popups, and craft markets to test models of collaboration, while building a denser regional innovation ecosystem.
Though the initial US Department of Agriculture proposal was not funded, KRNLS is pursuing financial support to grow mimetic’s impact.
Indirect Jobs Generated by Agriculture in Pennsylvania (2020)
A modified version of a graph published through mimetic's USDA Proposal (Source: IMPLAN, ESI)
