Date
2015

Client
Self

Domain
Industrial Design // Visual Communication // Research

Team
Samvidh Ramanathan
Malleka Singh

Recognition & Features
Behance Packaging Design Served, The Dieline, Packaging of the world, Trendhunter, GurlStudio, Packty

Herbesoul is a concept that promotes indoor gardening for the urban living culture. The product tries to build the very hobby of growing plants by promoting a well equipped kit for a beginner to understand and follow thereby promoting the practice of indoor gardening. The concept was tested in an Indian urban context when indoor gardening was still on a gradual rise in major cities.

In a geographical and cultural context of urban India, where cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Pune are growing rapidly vertically rather than horizontally, simultaneously there has been an accelerated rise in the number of people enthusiastic about gardening indoors, on the fringes of their balconies while finding new hobbies to keep themselves busy.

For the case study presented below, we have focused on the act of growing herbs as a way to take this concept further. Although enthusiasts could vary from age group to age group, based on our initial user research and interviews conducted, we decided to focus our effort on two primary groups - homemakers for whom cooking & caregiving is first priority to daily living & retired professionals who were looking to take up a new hobby with time and patience.

These were the first few prototypes and probes before we proceeded to the final outcome based on our testing. The final outcome was based on the concept of a “toolkit”, a package that encompasses all necessary elements to get started.

The outer package is reusable as a storage box making the kit indisposable. The kit is tied together with an elastic band for durability and portability. It is a DIY kit that contains one tool, 2 seed packets, one plant food packet, coco peat, a pot and a base plate.

An exploded view of the ceramic pot, plate and the outer package that close within each other.