Waldwick Gardens
Background
Waldwick Gardens is a local garden shop & nursery located in my home town. For years, I have passed by their location. I was particularly aware of the store when walking home from middle school everyday. Therefore, also for years, I passed by their old, wooden, Comic Sans signage. Eventually, I felt compelled and capable enough to redesign their brand identity using what I had been learning throughout high school, college, and my on-the-job experiences.
Specifications
My main intent with this project was to modernize and upgrade their branding. Due to their signage being a first point-of-contact with many potential customers, I felt it was important to center the design around the sign that likely acts as a primary source of advertising and awareness. The particulars of the project included:
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New, eye-catching logo & relevant color scheme
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Primary signage
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Portrait/landscape options for business cards
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Plant labels for plant identification and pricing
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Logo variants for holidays/occasions
The Logo & Sign
The key words I wanted to evoke with the design were fantastical, magical, natural, and classy - something akin to a "Secret Garden" aesthetic. Using a flowing, curving font would help invoke organic, natural shapes, while the serifs provide that hint of class. Green and deep brown draw obvious connections to earth and plants, while avoiding the characteristic lightness of mud. The yellow completes the metaphorical picture, providing the warm, yellow sun to the brown earth and green plants. In addition, the yellow acts as a contrasting, lighter tone to stand out against the dark brown.
The Business Cards
For the business card, I expanded on the usage of line and roots to further cement them as elements of Waldwick Garden's iconography. You can see the lines to the left and right of the logo and sign, and the roots make up the silhouette of a plant pot. I find they provide an appealing juxtaposition between the disorder of nature and the demonstrated professionalism of the company. The heavy use of lines provides a useful design element for dividing up information, and the roots offer a subtle texture for visual interest while referencing the icon in the wordmark.
The Plant Labels
I made the choice to design custom company plant labels because I felt it could be an effective way to stand out and also propagate awareness of the company. Often, plant labels are designed to inform prospective customers with simplistic, bland presentation and are thrown out after a purchase. The Waldwick Gardens redesign could offer an attractive, informative, and customizable alternative that has a sense of identity. The customizability comes from being able to put price stickers into the yellow box to deal with fluctuations or adjustments in price, even after the label is printed. With Waldwick Garden's plant labels, my intention was that a customer would be more inclined to keep the label if it was an attractive design and visually distinct. In this scenario, it could also function as a small advertisement in the customer's home. On the other hand, if the customer were to throw it out, they would find the formerly hidden leaf design when they removed the label from the dirt, and would have a charming, albeit small, surprise to round out their experience purchasing from Waldwick Gardens.
The Seasonal Variants
To make sure that Waldwick Gardens was responsive to the seasonal changes that would logically affect the offerings of a gardening/plant store, I made distinct variants to acknowledge, embrace, and advertise those changes. Your average person who isn't doing a lot of gardening or landscaping probably only goes to a store like Waldwick Gardens for three occasions - October to buy Halloween pumpkins, December to buy Christmas trees, and the months of Spring to celebrate the coming summer and warm weather. These specific variants are a way to subtly demonstrate that Waldwick Gardens will go the extra mile for quality and presentation, establishing the business as high quality, reliable, and attentive in customers' minds.
