LarkBurger

• PROJECT DETAILS
  
• Paper: Used food wrappers, newspapers, junk mail and other detritus.
  
  
• Printing: In-house Xerox laser printer
  
  
• Finishing: Trimmed and hand-sewn with scrap string.
  
  
• More: Talk about commitment; the Barhart team had to hand-assemble many of the sheets, since wrappers were oddly-sized.

We developed this as a new business promotion for Larkburger, an eco-friendly and 100% natural burger joint that was getting ready to open a new location in downtown Denver. We wanted to make a piece that showed we truly understood the client and their mission, and one that would also reflect our own passion for sustainable design. Using reclaimed materials for the booklet was the clear solution.

We basically gathered the materials from our everyday surroundings—trips down the street for lunch, wrappers from the corner coffee shop, newspapers sitting at the front desk, junk mail on our desks—things that normally would just get trashed. I looked for materials with interesting textures and graphics, but they also had to be pliable enough to assemble into large sheets and run through a laser printer.

JS: There must have been a fair amount of trial and error involved here. Were there any abysmal failures? Did you have to adapt the production process as you discovered new materials or moved away from ones that didn't work? Did the design itself have to change at all as your hands-on experiences with the various materials evolved?

JH: I ran a piece of Tyvek through the printer and almost destroyed the entire thing! It basically started to melt inside the machine. Ha, sometimes you forget how many things are made synthetically. Many of the wrappers I used also had coatings on them, each reacting in its own way—some good, some bad. The hardest part was assembling sheets that were sturdy enough to run through the printer; fast food bags, newsprint and sandwich wrappers are really thin for a Xerox.

I designed the entire layout knowing that the background would be very random, so I was able to not have to make any changes midstream.

JS: Clearly the printing process was particularly challenging given the materials. Why bother?

Well, first off it was fun! We also wanted to present the client with something that was authentic in regards to their philosophy. It would have been easy to just print the piece on virgin stock, but that would have been contrary to everything Larkburger is trying to do. We also knew that doing something unique would have far more impact, which is worth the extra effort.

JS: How do you think the materials themselves influenced the design of each page (did you design to the material, or choose the material to fit the design)? And how do you think this might have changed had you used virgin stock?

JH: The materials definitely forced simplicity within the design. The graphics and type had to be bold and high in contrast to stand out from the visual noise that had already been printed. But I can't really say which came first, the layout or the materials—I think I formulated both components in my head before ever putting pen to paper.

We knew from the get-go that the piece was going to use recycled paper—had virgin stock been the only option, we just wouldn't have done it. The reclaimed materials were really the essence of the piece.