ART DIRECTION | CONTENT PRODUCTION
Designing a modern plant shop for modern plant people at Patch Plants
Patch was the first online houseplant brand in the UK. Patch helps you choose the right plants for your space, delivers them to your door, and helps you look after them. Although I inherited the visual identity, as Creative Director at the start up I set the creative strategy, evolved the look and feel, produced and art directed all photoshoots, designed and developed assets for both print and digital, and led a team of designers and copywriters. The creative is designed to balance aspiration and a modern aesthetic with mass appeal. FYI my fiddle-leaf fig currently has no leaves, but my cactus is thriving.
PACKAGING DESIGN
Patch deliver plants in telescopic boxes; they can be clipped at different heights depending on the size of the plant. I’m a firm believer in the importance of the delivery experience for e-comm brands. I worked with an illustrator to develop a design that ‘grows’ with the box, so it appears as a complete picture regardless of the height. I balanced this with the user experience to ensure instructions were clear to both drivers and customers (orientation, fragility, how to open the box).
CARE STICKS
One of the most distinctive USPs at Patch is the naming of its plants. A foundation of the brand is making plant care easy, and that includes replacing the often complex Latin names with recognisable nicknames. I designed these care sticks as physical ‘care guides’ - a QR code and a link on the reverse side of the care stick both connect the customer to that plant’s specific care page on the website. The design was intended to be subtle enough that plant owners would choose to keep the sticks in the plant.
AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
For an awareness campaign we ran on the rail network, I wrote a headline that played into our playful brand and connected with both the location, and the common experience of plant ownership. I developed a bold, simple design to let the copy own the hierarchy.
AWARD-WINNERS AT CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW
Patch was invited to exhibit at the prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower Show the first year they featured houseplants. We partnered with The Edible Bus Stop team to develop our concept, The Pharmacy of Houseplants, based on the healing power of plants. The studio was filled with an exotic mix of plants, and ‘doctors’ were on hand to dispense advice - wearing lab coats, of course. We won a Silver-Gilt medal
