STREET VENDOR PROJECT

The Street Vendor Project is a membership-based collective of more than 2,900 workers who advocate for their rights as street vendors. Modern policy and social attitudes often ignore the cultural and economic impact of street vendors. Unsympathetic media reporting even undermines their legitimacy as small business owners. To continue supporting vendors with legal representation, training opportunities and more, the Street Vendor Project needed to raise awareness and improve understanding of how essential street vendors are to the fabric of New York City and beyond.

In collaboration with Street Vendor Project Deputy Director Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, we evolved the brand with a unified visual system and messaging framework. We created a secondary logo that interprets intersecting street signs as a protest sign to emphasize the rights of the collective while evoking the spirit of the city. The visual system’s simplicity and ability to function in any language allow it to resonate with New Yorkers of different cultural backgrounds. Graphic icons speak to the variety of vendor merchandise, and the vibrant color palette and typography allude to taxis, traffic barriers and street signage. The brand toolkit includes social media templates to publicize facts and statistics about street vending and designs for posters and stickers vendors can use to display their pride in their work.

The brand toolkit is helping the Street Vendor Project mobilize to build social and political influence at a moment when immigrants’ rights, labor protections and public spaces are threatened. The unified visual and messaging system is driving awareness and impact online, at rallies and protests, and in rooms where policy decisions are made.