Adam Paterson and Santi Tonsukha from the Royal College of Art Industrial Design Engineering created “GrowYourOwn” packaging for fruit and vegetable seeds for novice gardeners:
"Using user centric research and the natural properties of 100% recyclable corrugated cardboard, they created new packaging that was simple, clear, sustainable and approachable. The project won ‘In-Book’ award for the D&AD Student Awards 2009. A single piece of 100% recycled corrugated cardboard is the package.
Research showed that users didn’t use all the seeds in a pack at once. The new packaging is easily re-sealable. Insights also suggested that an allotment grower generally doesn’t want to grow/eat a large number of crops of the same variety. The new packaging can hold a variety of seeds, separately, in one pack, utilizing the corrugated structure of the cardboard as natural dividers.
With previous seed packaging, distributing the seeds evenly from the pack was very hard. By using the corrugated structure the seeds are held in thin rows, which are the perfect ‘v’ shape to allow them to be
very easily and controllably shaken out.
It can be tedious and boring laying out rows of seeds whilst trying to maintain equal spacing. The new measuring tape style, which the DIY savvy customer can easily relate, makes it much quicker and easier.
The tape, with its embedded seeds, has 10 cm markers on it, making it easy to simply pull out the desired length, tear it off and lay it in the ground.
The packaging for bulbs is reminiscent of brown paper sacks, creating a mental link with what the consumer is used to seeing/buying the fully-grown vegetable in.
The natural matte colour and aesthetic of the cardboard creates visual differentiation from the other packages that present too much information and can be overwhelming and intimidating as a result."
