Growing Vision Together: Urban Roots Interactive Vision Map

Graphic Recording, Graphic Walls

Urban Roots Interactive Graphic Recording Vision Board

Client: Urban Roots, a dynamic Austin-based nonprofit cultivating youth leadership through food and farming. Lindsay Smith, event planner and founder at Smith Strategies brought us together to create a unique, interactive onsite activation.

Setting the Stage: Urban Roots - a youth-driven non-profit rooted in farming, leadership, and food justice in the Austin area - was stepping into a new era. With fresh leadership and revitalized branding, they wanted more than a fundraiser. They wanted connection. Momentum. Vision.

At their annual farm-to-table event held at a local Austin brewery, they brought us in to create something special: an Interactive Vision Map that would turn community voices into visual storytelling.

The Creative Catalyst Solution:Creative Catalyst's Interactive Easel Wall was the featured live "activation" during their onsite fundraiser. More than just a visual installation, this was a collaborative experience designed to capture the hopes, ideas, and voices of the Urban Roots community.

Despite the challenges of hosting the event outdoors in breezy (and hot!) May weather in Austin, our team strategically positioned and secured the easel wall (this time without easels) inside a sheltered brewery window alcove - transforming a potential obstacle into an anchored creative space.

Experience Highlights:

Participatory Design
Guests were invited to answer the prompt: “How do you envision the future of Urban Roots?” Using fun, specially-shaped stickie notes (like leaves, tomatoes and pumpkins) attendees got to “plant” their ideas in a visual field - growing a collective vision in real time.
Youth Leader Voices Front and Center
Insights gathered ahead of time from Urban Roots’ youth leaders were embedded into the vision map - honoring their role and making their voices visible in the framing of the map.
Mission in the Metaphor
We wove Urban Roots’ mission, values, and impact pillars directly into the artwork:

Their mission blazed from the sun
Their pillars of impact floated in the clouds
Community feedback and supporter hopes grew from the fertile field below

The result? A literal “big picture” that captured both legacy and forward motion.

Amplified by Sharing and Hashtag
The team encouraged attendees to share their contributions on social media using a custom hashtag, extending the impact far beyond the brewery walls.

The Outcome:

The final Interactive Vision Map became more than a one-night activation. After the event, the completed vision map was carefully removed from the brewery wall nook, photographed and then installed in the Urban Roots offices. It now stands as a living artifact—a daily reminder of shared purpose and possibility.

In the Client’s words:

“The vision board that Creative Catalyst designed for us was a collaborative effort from start to finish! Our guests had fun participating in a new activity, and as a bonus, we gained valuable insights from our youth leaders and community through the responses that shaped the vision board. We now have the board displayed in our office and are looking forward to having it be a centerpiece in our space for years to come.”

Why It Worked: