Engaging posters capture spirit of Kokua Market

Kokua Market, the Manoa health food cooperative which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, has a new look with dozens of somewhat satirical graphic posters designed to reflect the hippie-era character of its staff, members and mission.

Longtime customer Oren Schlieman, who started the marketing firm Info Grafik in 1985, formulated a business strategy last fall to refresh Kokua’s brand and reboot its marketing. It’s based on the co-op’s “More Ono. More Pono” motto, derived from a Slow Food Oahu bumper sticker, with the words, “ono” and “pono.”

“The idea being that the more you help local farmers, the healthier our people and our island will be from a variety of angles: food security, economic security, personal health, local food culture, etc. … Kokua was a pioneer in the local health food category and in supporting local organic and farmers,” he added.

Schlieman designed about 30 posters that were installed in November throughout the store and on its King Street frontage. A few are nostalgic, making use of a few photos from Kokua’s archives and other contributors, including a poster showing farmer Scott Chun delivering his apple bananas 40 years ago in one photo alongside a current photo.

Laurie Carlson, a founder and general manager of the co-op, said her favorite poster is based on an old photo from 1980 of her leaning on a truck driven by her husband, with other friends. Another depicts a black-and-white photo of flying saucers or “interplanetary vessels” over Diamond Head delivering Jovians (inhabitants of Jupiter) taken from a 1974 community newspaper, with the caption, “Fresh Jovians, Coming Soon!” It’s not to supposed to make sense, as it’s just a “flight of fancy, for sure,” Carlson said.

One poster is outright anti-establishment: “In the Jurassic Era, circa 1971, most food came in cans full of chemicals you couldn’t pronounce. … then one day some hippies and farmers got together and said, ‘Man, this sucks.’ So they started Kokua Cooperative. …”

Schlieman said he made the posters fun, engaging, and a bit irreverent to “capture the diverse thinking and personality of the vendors, customers and staff.” He described the co-op as atypical, meaning, “a bunch of hippies organized it and it’s maintained that spirit. Kokua Market is this quirky mix of volunteers, students and a few employees. … They have a very independent spirit but also a collective spirit.”

One poster reads: “Where’s my polenta? Some days we have it and some we don’t. The farmers and food producers who sell their goods at Kokua are typically family operations that bring us what they have, when it’s fresh. We may not always have your favorites but we do always have something fresh, fab and ono.”

Schlieman has been doing some publicity for the market since 2017, but this is his most comprehensive campaign, for which he told Carlson: “I will work for food.” Seriously. Knowing the market’s budget was minimal, he worked at a discounted rate paid for in groceries, and even helped put up the posters. Kapiolani Signs and Aloha Graphics produced the posters and banners at cost-effective prices.