LANDTASIA ORGANIC COMPOST

If there is such a thing as designer compost, Simone Dilkara has created it. It’s made with a lot of love and care over many months and horticulturists and gardeners swear by it. Simone had been selling the compost in plain white bags with a rough logo stamped on the front, but was keen to spread the word and package the compost to sell in garden centres.

This market is crowded with bright bags, printed with over-bright photographs and brash typography. Simone was mindful of her target audience – women whose gardens are a passion – and wanted to appeal to them, standing out from the crowd. Radically, I suggested that something subtle, pretty and calm would be the logical choice. A lot of information needs to appear on a bag of compost so my challenge was to accommodate all of this in a design that stood out by not shouting.

I presented several options, but Simone was drawn to my little illustrations and loved the colour combination of silvery green and dusky purple. The illustrations have solid outlines with an offset fill of colour, and I reworked the logo in the same style. I was mindful that subtlety shouldn’t mean invisibility, so I used blocks of colour to complement and highlight the white space. We presented the information in a chatty, quirky way to make the text fun and personal. Simone is delighted with the results and several local garden centres have started selling this unique product.