I enjoyed working as the Marketing Coordinator for this five acre nursery in Portland, OR.
During my time there I had a wide variety of responsibilities.
I created the annual marketing plan, identified needed policies/resources and developed their content, created and maintained relationships with partners, planned annual charity donations, refreshed the brand, directed website audits and updates, conducted event planning, social media photography and copy, created graphics, updated in-store signage, conducted market research, wrote and illustrated web content. Attended and contributed to the weekly manager meeting. I also met regularly with heads of various departments to make sure the marketing supported their needs.
One of my proudest moments was when I asserted the need for a diversity statement, gender-neutral bathroom information, and an accessibility guide. The owners of the company heard my concerns and allowed me to create all of these missing resources. You can see examples of this on my content creation page.
I started an online Learning Center, including the company blog, a monthly garden guide, informational articles, and more.
I developed a houseplant information database and photographed hundreds of products for online sales. For this, I translated the Cornell Farm logo into a more subtle watermark. I also worked with a member of the production team to create an on-brand photobooth. Together, these aspects created a uniform and professional appearance.
For this project, I had the opportunity to research hundreds of plants in order to be able to write their description, and include such information as their common and scientific names, origin, care, and other interesting facts. In this way we created a resource for customers above and beyond just a place to make purchases. You can see examples of this on my content creation page.
Highlights from Cornell Farm’s instagram during my time there. I worked to create a balance between the different departments, feature events, and give an overall sense of the nursery and cafe.
Each month I photographed every outdoor plant that was in bloom, over time this created a stunning photographic bloom calendar. According to website traffic, this was a much-loved resource for our customer base.
One of our biggest in person draws was a monthly event I created — our houseplant swap! It was successful at bringing people into the store, but also had the side effect of letting the customers get a chance to know the employees better. It even became its own little community over the time I was there. I was able to learn a lot about what customers were looking for and responding to by interacting with houseplant swap guests. This is one example of a flyer I designed to support the event.
I designed all graphics below except the logo, it predated my time at the company.
I also organized, marketed, and hosted a wide variety of additional events. I brought in presenters that I found through my community contacts, asked fellow staff members to present, or researched and presented myself. Below are two separate flyers I created to spread the word.
One of my guiding values as a designer is sustainability. I was able to work with the nursery staff to reduce waste in the nursery and was also able to highlight it in order to communicate to customers.
When I arrived at Cornell Farm, the in-store signage was mostly black and white and focused on textual information. I updated the look and feel.
Here are a few links that include examples of the writing and graphics I did for Cornell Farm.
Houseplants 101: Watering
Houseplants 101: Light
Houseplants 101: Containers and Repotting
Houseplants 101: Humidity
In addition, I also wrote the weekly email newsletter and a wide variety of other resources. You can see examples of this on my content creation page.