"Decompose Recompose" illustrates food waste recycling through composting. The recycle symbol arrows were created from food scraps, finished compost and sprouted radish seeds. 

I created a template of a single arrow in Adobe Illustrator, then printed it on 11"x17" paper. 

Each "arrow" was created separately from raw materials arranged and shaped to conform to the template, then photographed with an iPad Mini.

 

The food scrap arrow was formed from garden waste -- deadheaded flowers, grass clippings, leaves -- and kitchen refuse -- potato peels, onion skins, eggshells, rice and a tea bag. 

Compost was freshly harvested for the second arrow. Care was taken to not harm any earthworms during styling and photography.

The sprout arrow took nearly a week to complete. Soil was arranged thickly on the template in a seed starting tray, then covered with radish seeds. After the seeds sprouted and leaves emerged, the tray was placed in direct sunlight for the sprouts to "green up" with chlorophyll. 

My assistant, Nikko, during the final photo session.

Individual photos were masked and composited into the recycle symbol in Adobe Photoshop. The final layout and typography was done in Adobe InDesign.