Little Gardens

The Project

Service Design was a class to design services (i.e. subscriptions or programs) for children. Little Gardens was a semester-long group project that we each had a few touchpoints that we worked on.

The Problem

Economically disadvantaged preschoolers struggle to develop foundational problem-solving and life skills due to the neglect of real-world, play-based learning in affordable services, leaving a gap in school readiness between children from underserved families and those from affluent backgrounds.

Branding

I did not develop the branding that much, I had some input, but it was really my group member who developed it. I think it is important to showcase the brand for it to make sense for my design choices.

Stickers/Characters

For the kid’s journal, they have to fill out a calendar with stickers for how to take care of their plants. The stickers include the characters of the plants they are growing, a ruler (to encourage children to measure their plants), and a watering can so they can be on a watering schedule. These characters were also developed throughout the book’s activities since kids resonate well with characters.

Process

I developed the shapes, but for the first iteration of these characters I used a watercolor brush. However, we decided to go with something that children would be familiar with, which was an Eric Carle inspired art style.

Care Guide

This is for the parents only! The parents get this in their child’s kit and it has all the information about the program, what to expect, how to take care of their plant, the phases of growth, how to harvest, how to repot, etc.

Round 1

I had some help from my teammate to get it over the finish line because it was so dense with content. However, these were the the designs that came first. I wrote all the content and did all the designs for the characters, diagrams, and tools.

Process

Round 2

Recipe Cards

Hopefully, the plants make it to end of the program, because they can harvest and use it to cook easy, kid-friendly recipes.

Round 1

I had a couple of designs for the recipe cards. I tried them horizontally and vertically, and we decided to do it horizontally because it would be easier for the kids to hold the cards. We also decided to have the cards say fun little kitchen tips.

Process

Round 2

Final

These are the final products that we came out with. To learn more about our project, watch and enjoy our video!