And so I came up with a list of products that I could make/ propose…
I began by thinking about how I would package the terrarium, which I had decided would be almost round, like a fish bowl shape, to support the word orb , in the brand orbotany. I wanted to make the packaging different to most shops, I also knew that some of the smaller terrariums would have plants inside them and that meant that the plants needed space and couldn't be squashed. I looked into ways bowls can be carried and I thought about egg boxes and cup holders, they hold items that have similar requirements.
I drew the packaging and came to an almost final solution.
The orb terrarium would fit inside the hole and the box would be carried by string.
As well as this I thought about the labelling of the plants, I felt that it would be appropriate to the audience if the plants came with a small guide of how to look after the plants, and what their requirements are. And so I came up with a label shaped guide, which would contain a few pages, and the information would be precise. And so I would still need an actual label and I thought about how the guide would stay with the plant.
I then thought about a belly band that would go around the terrarium and this would show the name and price of the plant. This would mean that the guide could slide underneath the band and it would all hold in place around the orb.
The container, a similar design to a cup holder, will hold the terrarium/orb in place. It fits into the holder to about half way this means it will be secure and any plants that proceed out of the terrarium still have room and can breathe. I used a circle object to portray the orb and so I could make the mock ups. It is also a similar size to which I had imagined the size of the orb to be.
The bellyband that would go around the orb…
this too would allow the plant to grow out of the top , and you can still see the container.
How the bellyband would close. This would be easy to assemble by the staff and it doesn't require any extra materials so it is more sustainable.
The leaflet would fit in behind the belly band and from the mock I could see that the leaflet would stay secure.
I then began by mocking up the way the package would be held, from my initial sketches I tried the ribbon, I found that it was hard to hold and hard to assemble so it would not be easy to use by the customer and by the staff.
And so I used a piece of string and I found that it was sturdier, ergonomically better, and again less packaging/ materials to use, making it more sustainable. As well as this the string would already be integrated in the packaging and so staff would not need to spend a lot of time assembling the package.
This is how everything would look together and I feel that it all fits together well, and everything is required for. It is also different to a lot of other shops where you get a paper or plastic bag.
I further developed this packaging by adding a slot where the receipt would go, this means that everything remains together, just as it would in a bag. The customer would not need to put their receipt in a separate bag and they would have less chance of losing it.
The orb , and the bellyband, this is how it would be displayed in store, I discovered that the guide was too thick and would not hold against the bellyband. The bellyband itself is very simple, it displays the name and the price. This would be cheaper to print, and more sustainable as the band would probably be thrown away when the customer got the product home as the plant would go into a larger terrarium. And so the orb itself would be plastic, cheaper to produce and recyclable.
The guide would fit in the slot where the receipt would go. The packaging is really simple, yet effective, it fits in with the identity of the brand and the shop. The balance of the brown and green create a natural look.
After a crit I was asked how I would brand the packaging and so I added the business card to the string and this brands the package, I also think its interesting and the bow adds a more personal feel.
(this is how the separate slot looks inside the package, it has the logo of the shop in the centre and this is almost where the product is placed)
The guide
I used paper to mock up the paper, I numbered the pages so that I could see which page would need to go where for printing purposes.
I called the guide, a guide to greenery. Greenery being another word for plant, and the word greenery suggests that the plant would be green, meaning it is alive and growing.
I also used alliteration as it is more fun and associable.
In the guide,
Section 1- Is the description of what the plant will/should look like and an image of the plant again to show the audience what the plant is, and the name and latin name, which gives a little more information to that plant incase they can't find what they need using the english name. The description also helps the audience to decide what they would want their terrarium to look like.
Section 2- The origin of the plant, and then on the opposite page a outline of how wide and how tall the plant could grow at maximum, as they may have larger or smaller terrariums.
Section3- Care and maintenance , gives the audience an outline of what lighting conditions the plants need, the amount of water they need, and the temperature the plant needs, all are supported by a little icon indicating which information is what.
I binded the guides with the brown string I had used in the packaging. I put a hole in the top corner, like a label would. The brown again adds more colour to the guide, and brown/green is natural looking. And again a bow looks personal and adds a human-like touch.
I made 12 guides for the 12 plants I had selected as the basic range for the shop. I decided on these 12 from the article I had read online. 12 is also good to work with in terms of a grid , as it can be divided by 2,3 and 4.
I then decided to make a starter kit. This would contain a terrarium, and a how-to terrarium guide, which I felt was missing from the product range. The audience need to know how to make a terrarium and what they would need. These could also be sold separately and be available to look at in store.
The how- to terrarium guide is all green with white stock, I used the green as copy and for the illustrations but to alternate the look I reversed the green to the background and made the copy/ illustrations white/blank so that it would be the stock. The front cover is in this style as I think that the green stands out more and it really emphasises that it is the start and the front of the book.
Inside the book is all the information needed. All the illustrations inside the book where drawn on illustrator by me, they are very linear, but this suits the surrounding font and the style of the brand.
I binded the book by stitching up the side with white thread, I used white as I didn't really want the focus to be on the binding and it fits in with the colour scheme. As well as this the use of the thread is more natural looking than a staple, and so this fits in with the organic and naturalness of the brand.
And so the book goes in to the kit, as well as a gardening kit. I got the mini (mini as the terrarium is like a miniature garden) gardening kit online, I had to paint the metallic parts as the only kit I could find for a reasonable price was red and brown. However I painted the red green and it worked out okay. The tools included, a watering can, a trowel, a spade and a rake.
I made labels for each individual tool, which would also be sold separately in the store.
The watering can would be sold separately.
But for the starter kit I put the three tools together ( trowel, spade and rake) and tied them together with white ribbon as the other packaging is mostly brown. The white ribbon is also thick and this looks interesting and gift like as oppose the brown string which is more practical.
And so I made another label that would be used for all three tools, and put into the kit. I again, to make it different to the normal labels, reversed the colours so that the green was the background, and this stands out more as the green is so vibrant.
I experimented with a range of layouts for the labels...
After deciding upon this layout I decided that I needed to include the price like I had on the bellybands, and the space at the bottom opposite to the logo was a good place to put the price.
This really finished of the label and I made the price a larger point size so that this and the name are the first thing you see, this is one of the main things a customer would want to know first, and then they would read the description.
And so I made the label for the set of tools here you can see that the label looks good in its layout but it doesn't stand out against the other labels.
Final set and labels.
I tied on the individual labels with the brown string, almost the same as the binding on the 'guide to greenery' guides and so this is a continuation of the style I had developed for the brand.
I made the same packaging for the kit as the I had the individual plants, but larger. I also added an extra label to the string which is the label for the starter kit, with the price of the overall kit.
Again I made this label green and white as it matched the business card/ label and it stands out as I have stated.
Final kit…
I decided to add this label instead of a bellyband as I wanted the audience to see what was inside container, and the bow looks very inviting and stands out amongst all the brown and green.
I also put all the contents into the terrarium, which was a glass bowl I got from a shop, and it was the perfect size and shape.
As well as this after making the packaging and inserting the terrarium the middle of the packaging it weighed down the centre of the pack and so I added a white cardboard cross to hold up the middle of the packaging.
This is how the kit would be carried, and you can see the labels now become very obvious.
I priced the starter kit, which I named 'get started ! kit' at £20.
I had already thought about adding in a soil orb and a charcoal orb, which are the same size of the individual plants orbs, and they'd be full of soil/ charcoal.
However when I had made the kit I had forgotten to add in these and I knew they would't fit inside the terrarium.
And so I made a voucher that would entitle the buyer to an orb of charcoal and soil.
It was also pointed out to me by some peers that £20 was quite a lot and how would I include plants into this kit. So I put on the voucher that it also entitled them to a plant, (from the starter price (£3.99).
I wanted the voucher to match the how-to terrarium publication and so I made it the same colour- green with stock. As well as this I thought that this was more appropriate for the voucher as a voucher is normally decorative.
I also rolled the voucher up and tied it up with string so that 1. it would fit in the orb, and 2. it adds an element of surprise and its more fun to open, and interact with.
For the business card I wasn't to sure what I wanted it to look like and so I made a lot of mock ups to decide what would look best. And I needed to print them out to see how the font would look and whether it would be readable.
I first made rectangular cards but I felt that they did not fit in with the circle theme and so I made the cards circular. I also couldn't decide whether both sides should be green and white or the back side should be white green.
I decided that green white was more in keeping to the style and it was more cohesive.
After the decisions I had made I felt that the type was to thin and I changed the font to bold.
The final business card, with a bold font, this is much more legible and it doesn't become lost in the green.
I printed everything onto cartridge paper, 140gsm, I used this stock as it is a warm white and it has a rougher texture, which gives it a natural and inviting property.
I printed with an inkjet printer, and this was more appropriate as the colour is more vibrant.
In industry a lot of these materials would be die cut which would make the cut more precise and standardised. The packaging would also be die cut, someone would have to add the string and labels etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment