I’ve got a very special love for plants. While living in San Francisco, I had upwards of 70+ different varieties of plants in our little apartment. My obsession led me to design Homegrown, in the hope that one day there would be an app to help me organize and care for my plants. With this background, it would make sense that I’d end up doing some design work for a nursery.

Kale’s Nursery is a garden center and landscaping business based in Princeton, NJ. It is one of the longest-running nurseries in the area, currently run by the third and fourth generations of the Kale family. The nursery is very involved with the community, and its holiday festivities are well-known in Princeton.

My work with at Kale’s started as a part-time plant care job to give me some time away from home - freelancing can make a person feel pretty isolated. Though I love caring for the plants, my position at the nursery quickly evolved to include design and branding work. Since Kale’s is a fairly small, family-run business, there’s been plenty of room for me to work my magic.

Ultimately I grew to providingbranding and marketing consultation, as well as running the company Instagram. I created Kale’s first Style Guide, a hefty 20 page document detailing rules and guidelines on anything related to the Kale’s brand. I also created templates and some adverts, depending on what the company needed. I even created chalkboard signs for the Garden Center from time to time.