Red Hook Farms is a community-powered agricultural space in Brooklyn that brings residents together across age, culture, and background to grow food, share knowledge, and strengthen local resilience. Operated by the Red Hook Initiative, the farm is a living demonstration of grassroots stewardship and neighborhood empowerment. Located across two city blocks at 560 Columbia Street, the farm flourishes within view of Manhattan’s skyline, offering a rare landscape where urban life and working agriculture coexist. In partnership with the Van Alen Institute, Studio Loutsis was engaged to create a signage and wayfinding system that reflects the farm’s values of collaboration, accessibility, and community identity.

Studio Loutsis began by studying the daily rhythms of the farm, the diverse audiences who use it, and the ways information needed to move through outdoor, agricultural conditions. Early conversations surfaced a central idea that became the conceptual foundation for the entire visual system: coming together. This principle informed every aspect of the design. The graphic language is built from a series of interlocking shapes that touch without overlapping, symbolizing the interconnectedness of people, place, and purpose. This visual metaphor mirrors how the farm operates, where individuals contribute unique roles that collectively sustain the whole.

The signage family includes primary and secondary farm identification, area markers, field and row IDs, directional elements, programming panels, hours of operation, and a custom map that visualizes the site as an interconnected ecosystem. The trilingual format in English, Spanish, and Chinese ensures that every visitor is welcomed and informed, reflecting the cultural diversity of Red Hook and reinforcing the farm’s mission of inclusivity. Color was carefully calibrated across area identification and directional elements to structure the farm into legible zones, allowing visitors to intuit relationships, orientation, and movement. This chromatic logic binds the entire wayfinding system into a visually interconnected whole, extending clarity beyond text alone.

Adaptability and durability were essential to the system. Agricultural environments evolve with the seasons, and the signage needed to evolve with them. Studio Loutsis designed a modular system that staff can easily update as field layouts change, crops shift, and programs cycle throughout the year. Materials were selected to endure harsh tri-state climate variations, while balancing sustainability and longevity.