Spring, Jasmine, Packaging, Lotus

The Spring Shop

Branding and packaging for flower garlands

Category
Branding · packaging · identity
Product
Jasmine garlands, Kochi
Year
2019
Role
Identity, packaging, illustration

In South India, strings of flowers in the hair are everyday culture, not a special occasion. At the market they still leave in plastic bags. The Spring Shop is a lotus-leaf wrap and a small identity for jasmine, so the pack can be as considered as the garland.

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Branding, packaging & identity

An organic wrap for a delicate thing

  • Packaging
  • Branding
  • Sustainability

  • Place

    Flower markets, Kochi-11 South India

  • Product

    Jasmine, closed bud 100g, Rs 40

  • Format

    Lotus-leaf pouches Die-cut seals, identity marks

Process board for The Spring Shop: cultural context, why lotus leaf, and packaging on a wooden shelf
The process: a cultural habit, a plastic problem, and a leaf that can hold a garland.

The brief

Packed in plastic, sold as a blessing

Wearing jasmine, marigold, kanakambaram in the braid is ordinary in South India. The flowers are bought fresh, in volume, and tied into strings that last a day. The pack they travel in is usually a thin plastic bag that neither protects the bloom nor belongs with it. The aim was a wrap that could sit on a market table, survive a little water, and disappear back into the earth.

Hair as the original display. Hands at the market. A bundle on the street at dusk.

Material

Why lotus leaf

Lotus leaf is already in the kitchen and the temple. The inside is soft and waxy, the outside rough and sturdy. It sheds water, folds without tearing, and is large enough to wrap a day’s worth of jasmine. It is also cheap, local, and biodegradable. The pack is the plant.

What the leaf does

Water resistant. Soft, waxy inside; rough, sturdy outside. Large surface area. Economic. Bio-degradable. Low cost. A folding method turns a round leaf into a rectangular pouch, sealed with the brand.

  • Lotus
  • Fold
  • Seal
Two green lotus leaves on black, one open and one partly folded
Lotus leaves are waxy, flexible and eco friendly.
A square pouch folded from a green leaf, with a little rice showing at the opening
Packaging and branding board showing leaf pouches, market photographs, and the leaf folding method
Sustainable packaging: an organic alternative to plastic for flower garlands.

Packaging

A pouch, a seal, a name

The leaf is the structure. The label is the adhesive and the brand. Die-cut lotus and circular seals in maroon and gold carry THE SPRING SHOP, the variety, a weight, a price, a number in Kochi. Radial symmetry, flowers, and rangoli sit in the same family of marks.

Three lotus-leaf packages of different sizes on a wooden shelf, each sealed with a maroon Spring Shop label
Three sizes on a wooden shelf. The leaf is the pack; the seal holds it shut.
On the table, and from above: jasmine in a C around the wrap.
JASMINE on a lotus-cut sticker. The same lockup on three greens of leaf.
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