Urban Leaf - The World's Smallest Garden
The World’s Smallest Garden is an eco-friendly hydroponic unit created by Urban Leaf, a New York City based FoodTech startup. The brand makes growing food at home fun, easy and accessible. It turns a reused glass bottle into a self-watering hydroponic garden, perfect for growing fresh food in small spaces.
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Urban Leaf was founded in New York by Nathan Littlewood and Rob Elliot to pursue the development of a healthier and more sustainable food system.
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Created for Urban Leaf while working as a Freelance Designer in New York City.
Service
Packaging Design
Client
Urban Leaf
Year
2017

OBjECTIVE
The goal was to create a unique packaging style for a unique new product. Recently crowdfunded through Kickstarter, “The World’s Smallest Garden” turns a bottle into a self-watering hydroponic garden. It is perfect for growing fresh food in small spaces - apt for New York city residents with green thumbs!
OUTCOME
Growing your own food in urban environments brings with it a number of unique challenges – most commonly a lack of time, space and know-how. Urban Leaf develops products that make growing food at home fun, easy and accessible.
The packaging design reflects this, and embraces the eco-friendly, carefully crafted nature of the product.

Earthy
The pen and ink illustrated craft paper packaging was created to portray the earthiness and uniqueness of the brand. The granular aesthetic was extended to create a set of icons used to break down to the step by step process of how to use the product.


Recyclable
There are two package sizes: a single-pack and 3-pack that are both 100% recyclable. The device is made from a biodegradable cornstarch-based plastic, encloses a nutrient-enriched "smart soil" with herb seeds, which then cradles and nurtures the plants as they grow their roots into the nutrient solution in the glass bottle.

