Lovejoy

November 19, 2009 | by Tricia | eating design, in action, lovejoy | Share

I love that name. Not only because there is a character on the Simpson’s with that name, a Lovejoy street here in Portland (in which the Simpson’s character was named after), and a new bakery here in town which also dons the name (because of the street is is located on), but they are two words we don’t hear enough. I once did a project on the meaning of Joy and Love (as well as Passion, Anger, Fear, and Pain)–I was making meditation cards for one of my yoga classes as one of my first letterpress experiments:

Love
is a sense of warmth for the self or another that motivates us to treat ourselves and others well. It gives us a sense of inherent worth.

Joy
gives us hope and a sense of abundance or “I have enough”.

Essentially, both of these words describe in the deepest sense the feeling of being full. Put them together, and man, that is one well-rounded, full description of someone or something! (And I don’t mean a well-stuffed Turkey, although I could see the irony in that, ha

. This is why I think it is a wonderful name for a bakery. A bakery feeds us physically, but sharing a good baguette, croissant, or slice of cake also feeds us in another way. Food has a way of connecting us to ourselves through memories and tastes. It is hard to feel full of anything when hungry!

I was super excited to have been asked to do an installation for Lovejoy Bakers opening, which was today. They were looking for something playful and interactive. I wanted it to be colorful, fun, and incorporate their fundamental passion and foundation of starting their bakery: a love of good bread. Really good bread. I also wanted to keep it simple and playful–so I came up with the Sample Board.

I bent spoons and hung them with colorful duct tape. On the spoons (of reaching height of course) samples will be interspersed throughout the day as a new bread or pastry comes out of the oven and is featured. Tea lights, sprigs of herbs, fresh olives, or other nibblies could be interspersed for a special event or just on a gray afternoon! The possibilities are endless for what could be put on the spoons and displayed. I wanted to set up a simple framework for them that they could interject what they needed to put on there or have nothing at all, and it would still look good.