As coincidences go, Imperfect CEO, Ben Simon’s encounter last month with a UC Berkeley student was one for the books.
While visiting a friend living in Hip House, a UC Berkeley housing cooperative, Ben Simon met Anna Thompson, a Master’s student in Landscape Architecture, who had recently designed a theoretical courtyard for Imperfect Produce in her Landscape Architecture course.
Thompson relayed the situation, “I got a text from my friend Danny that the CEO of Imperfect Produce was in the dining room, so I ran home to meet him! I guess I had told a bunch of people I lived with about the project.”
In her class with Professor David Meyer, she was given a courtyard to design for a company of her choice. Being interested in the environment and social issues, Thompson researched potential companies and came across Imperfect Produce, having not previously heard of Imperfect before the project. Thompson liked the company’s mission and began designing a theoretical courtyard for the company.
“It blew my mind when Anna busted out her laptop to show us her design of a courtyard for Imperfect. Here I was just eating dinner with some friends — this was so out of the blue. It’s a really amazing courtyard design. Some day maybe Imperfect will have a courtyard and we will get to implement Anna’s design” exclaimed Ben Simon, recalling the meeting with Anna.
Thompson explained in an interview that she enjoyed imagining “what would it look like to make a space that’s imperfect, to use elements of imperfection and value them.”
The focus of the courtyard for Thompson was the floor tile design, which she used “to get same color and vibrancy [of Imperfect’s produce], with imperfections built in.”
For Thompson, meeting Ben Simon was a welcomed surprise. “I was really excited at how much Ben thought it was cool. It was nice to be able to show [the project] to someone who had a stake in it, even though it would never happen.”
Thompson is from Marin and did her undergraduate studies in Environmental Science and Art at UC San Diego. She is nearing the end of her Master’s program and is interested in working on designing public spaces such as parks and larger scale projects after graduation.
“I like the aesthetic of the company, thinking of creative new solutions,” concluded Thompson.
Imperfect thanks Anna Thompson for thinking of us in her project, and will definitely think of her if an office courtyard is ever in our future!
