Compost Bag Packaging Design

During my time with Castro Valley Sanitary District (CVSan), I had the pleasure of working on a dream project – designing packaging for a compost bag. Compost is hugely beneficial for the environment and as a way to combat climate change, so designing around the subject has been an interest of mine for the past few years. The opportunity to create actual packaging for their compost product was definitely a treat.

In my role with this project, I was responsible for the creative direction, illustration, infographics and layout, and production design.

Process

In speaking with the agency, I was able to determine what direction they wanted to go with this project. They wanted to establish the connection between residents’ organic goods (food scraps, yard trimmings, etc.) and this amazing and nourishing product. Understanding the process of how you can make a difference by composting is key to motivating others to repeat the same process – so we wanted to represent that visually.

Illustration

I drew up a few composition options for the team at CVSan to choose from. It was a lesson for me as a designer, because while I personally favored option 1, they loved option 2, so we decided to go with that. And I’m happy we did, because I ended up liking it just as much!

We had the additional design constraint of only being able to use a single-color, as it was a screenprint.

Infographics

I had a lot of freedom with the back to create what I wanted – there wasn’t a ton of information I was required to include. I wanted to further explore the concept of a circular process, from organic goods to finish product and back again, so users can visualize what exactly happens. I also wanted to highlight the main benefits of using compost, as a way to motivate users to, well, actually use the product. There are so many little-mentioned benefits of compost, so for whatever factors you’re motivated by – horticulture, personal use, -- there’s definitely a benefit for that.