Branding guidelines

We are building a network of people and organisations who share a vision of the food system we want and build together open source software and knowledge to support that vision. In that context, it is important for the sake of our community to define the use of our brand, and protect the image and values that this brand vehicules.

As a local affiliate, you have the right to use the brand Open Food Network and any derivative (ex: Open Food France, Open Food Commons, etc.). You can choose for your local branding an OFN brand, or you can decide to use another "localized" branding if that makes more sense in your context. In any case, you are required to mention clearly and with high visibility in all your communication that your local entity is a "member/affiliate of the Open Food Network" with a link to the global website. To keep some form of visual consistent over all the global network, your local brand, whether it be an OFN derivative or not, must contain the "basket" visual. You can choose the color most adapted to your local brand.

In your reflexion on local branding, consider the following arguments:

  • Anything you produce, any media interview, will be published under your local name. If the name is clearly identified to the Open Food Network without more explanation, it will more directly benefit the global common and reinforce the common brand. So as a community, we encourage as much as possible local affiliates to use a branding as close as possible to the Open Food Network brand. But we respect your decision, following the subsidiarity principle. :-)

  • The community produces open source software, but not only! More and more, we develop sector development resources such as research projects, marketing tools, incubation programs, etc. Using an Open Food Network brand locally only for the platform could be damaging for the perception of what is OFN, limiting it to the software only. We strongly discourage you to use an OFN brand only for the software part, and another non OFN related brand for the sector development resources. If you choose a local branding, all your services might be under that branding and the affiliation to the Open Food Network should cover the software and sector development resources.

  • Your entity name and the brand you use can be different. In Australia, the Open Food Foundation and Open Food Services both use the trademark Open Food Network.

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