SENIOR CAPSTONE

BLOOMIN’ BINS

ABOUT BLOOMIN’ BINS

Bloomin’ Bins is a small subscription service based out of Austin, Texas. The owners have been gardening for over a decade and have a Certified Master Gardener who writes all the instructions for their subscription boxes, making them accurate and easy to follow. They have been experimenting with various seeds and plant types as well as different growing techniques to curate the best seeds and growing methods for their customers.

Bloomin’ Bins offers a wide variety of subscription services, ready to order plants and flowers, fruit, vegetable, and flower seeds, bulbs, garden tools and projects, and accessories. Each month, they have a new theme that is based around one fruit or vegetable and one flower. These are limited time offers, but all of their other inventory is available year-round.

PROPOSAL

Bloomin’ Bins wants a complete rebrand of their company to boost brand awareness and increase sales for their subscription boxes. They want a newly designed logo, redesigned packaging for their subscription box, a new look for their seed packets and houseplant soil bag, designed plant care cards, an informational plant care booklet, and a revamped website and Instagram page. Creating a consistent look across all brand components is crucial for Bloomin’ Bins to become a recognizable, industry leading brand.

OBJECTIVES

• To independently research, design, and produce a logo, subscription box packaging, plant information cards, booklet, website, and social media page for Bloomin’ Bins

• To develop a new brand identity for Bloomin’ Bins through the use of the design elements listed above

• To gather information about Bloomin’ Bins, analyze other plant subscription boxes, and apply that information to the components of the project

• To apply previously learned knowledge about design and incorporate that into the branding, illustration, type design, web design, and marketing of the project elements

• To assess and apply students’ and teachers’ critique to further develop and improve the project elements

• To create and present a well-designed project that meets and exceeds all requirements

DELIVERABLES

• Logo

• Subscription Box

• Three Seed Packets

• Three Plant Care Cards

• Informational Plant Care Booklet

• Houseplant Soil Bag Label

• Ecommerce Website

• Instagram Page

• Stickers (bonus)

TARGET AUDIENCE

Bloomin’ Bins’ main target audience are millennials, most commonly females, ages 25 to 45 who are houseplant and gardening enthusiasts, or who want to learn more about becoming a plant parent. Their income can range from lower-middle to high as there are options on the website for all price ranges (starting at $5 and going to $250+). This target audience should mostly likely live in an area where gardening is feasible for a good part of the year.

RESEARCH

I spent a majority of the time researching other houseplant buying websites and subscription services, like Bloomscape, The Sill, Horti, and more. I carefully looked through many different options of houseplant subscription boxes, including what came in them, how they were packaged and designed, and what kind of subscriptions were offered. What I found was that most houseplant subscriptions and websites only offered plants that were pre-planted and already growing when they arrived at peoples’ doors. I wanted to combined the gardening aspect and allow for people to plant and grow their own houseplants from seeds with all the materials and guidance they would need in the box.

In addition, while researching these websites and subscription services, I found that most of these sites had very clean designs with nicely set serif type, lots of imagery, and the use of green and cream colors. I took this into consideration when designing the website and Instagram page, as well as the other brand components, such as the subscription box design, plant care cards, and informational booklet. I used a consistent design across all deliverables – setting the main type with a serif font, using green and cream colors with pink accents, and pairing detailed illustrations with a more minimal line art. These design elements all come from detailed research of current industry leading houseplant brands.

PROCESS WORK

  • First Logo Thumbnail Round

    I started the whole process by sketching out some ideas for a logo. At first, I wanted a more straightforward, “make it pretty” logo but quickly realized I wanted it to be more conceptual.

  • Second Logo Thumbnail Round

    Here, I began to create and work out my “B” logo; the B in both “Bloomin’” and “Bins” combined with blooming leaves.

  • Third Logo Thumbnail Round

    This is where I am nailing down the design direction I want to go before I take it to the computer to process it more.

  • Seed Packet Sketches

    This was an idea I had in my head for a possible seed packet design and color palette. I eventually did use this color field idea and some of the colors.

  • Seed Packet Roughs

    Here, I was experimenting with a couple of different stylizations and fonts.

  • First Go at the Subscription Box

    This is what I was envisioning at first for the subscription box design, but I worked with this concept to better tie it in with the rest of my brand elements.

  • First Plant Care Card Design

    This was my first design for the plant care card. I used the same icons and a similar layout, but ditched the picture and changed the orientation.

FINAL PRODUCTS

LOGO

My final logo combines the B from the brand’s name and blooming leaves coming out of the B to encapsulate the meaning behind the business.

SUBSCRIPTION BOX

The subscription box includes the green main brand color, pink accents that are used throughout the deliverables, and the floral line drawings that show up in the brochure, as well as the bonus sticker pack.

SEED PACKETS

The three seed packets incorporate a contemporary design style with the illustrations of the plants being the main design component of the packets. The color fields that appears in other deliverables are displayed behind each illustration, with the name of the plant set in the dominant serif font and description set in the subdominant sans serif font. The back includes step by step instructions on how to plant the seeds, and incorporates the color fields that similarly appear in the plant care cards.

PLANT CARE CARDS

The three seed packets incorporate a contemporary design style with the illustrations of the plants being the main design component of the packets. The color fields that appears in other deliverables are displayed behind each illustration, with the name of the plant set in the dominant serif font and description set in the subdominant sans serif font. The back includes step by step instructions on how to plant the seeds, and incorporates the color fields that similarly appear in the plant care cards.

INFORMATIONAL PLANT CARE BOOKLET

This booklet includes 10 tips and tricks for taking care of houseplants. It includes detailed tips for beginners to navigate taking care of houseplants, and gives information about the different subscriptions and what can be found on their website. It contains the same green brand color with pink accents, the floral line illustrations, and a picture of greenery that appears on the website as well.

HOUSEPLANT SOIL LABEL & STICKERS

Included in all houseplant subscription boxes is a bag of premium houseplant soil. I wanted to create a label to add some branding to the pink bags. The label uses the brands colors, fonts, and line illustrations. I created a sticker sheet as a bonus that can be an extra added element to the subscription boxes by adding a fun, little gift for the customer. These stickers, specifically the ones with the logo, are used to close the seed packets.

ECOMMERCE WEBSITE

The website is an ecommerce site used to place orders for Bloomin’ Bins’ products. It incorporates lots of imagery, the brand colors, and many call to action buttons to entice the visitor to buy something.

INSTAGRAM PAGE

Bloomin Bins’ Instagram page is full of beautiful, eye-catching imagery along with branded posts letting followers know about sales and other information on plant care.