What

A project that was introduced to me when I was studying abroad at The University of the Arts London. It considered the culture of London, as well as conveying a complex idea through tangible design.

Problem

The task for this project was to choose one area in London that we appreciated, and convey a day-in-the-life of this location using graphic design. It was rather abstract, though gave me a lot of room for creativity and exploration.

Process

When I began to consider locations, I was especially intrigued by a community garden nearby campus called Skip garden. It's not only a community garden, but it utilizes old skips, which is a British term for these large, wheel-barrel-like bins, used for debris and trash in construction settings. Take a look here: Skip Garden

Not only does Skips recycle, but they attach wheels on these skips so that the community garden is actually mobile. This means that it can move from location to location to really grow the community outreach. Another incredible thing about Skips is the cafe that is located inside the garden. Not only is the space beautiful, but all of the food in the cafe is produced by fruits, grains, and vegetables grown in the garden. It's an incredible model of education, outreach, and sustainability.

All of this research really inspired me to think of a creative solution to bring the outside individual into a day at Skips through design. Initially, I thought of creating an informational poster, but I decided that I wanted to do something more hands-on and interactive, just like Skips. I remembered how years ago in Portland, Oregon, there was a gumball machine that had, for fifty-cents, seed bombs instead of gum. These were little gumball-sized soil artifacts that could be placed outside, and over-time, with water and love, they would hopefully grow. 

This seemed like the ideal solution for the Skip garden. Creating a small piece of their goal and literally planting the seeds elsewhere. I researched how to create my own and it was simple enough; natural clay, soil, seeds, and a piece of twine to label the types of seeds. The next step was configuring how I would be able to show a day-in-the-life.

Solution

In a typical day, an individual will eat three meals, and since food is the main output for Skips, I thought a solution to show a day-in-the-life of Skips, would be to make three different bombs, one for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. Of course, a traditional British breakfast has tomato, so this would be the first seed bomb, for lunch, a nice arugula salad, and then finally, for dinner, eggplant. To consider these three bombs, I decided to make packaging for each. Color, and illustration on the back of the box, and a label on the twine of the bomb all differentiated each one.

Project Scope

Production
Print
Packaging
Industry Research
Environmental Design
Arts and Crafts