Wow, what a ride this project has been. It all started with a 2012 phone call from a friend suggesting that I should be selling heirloom, seeds. By the next day I had come up with the name Strathcona 1890 Urban Seed Collections and bought the domain. (My big regret is that I never bought the domain 1890.com.) To get the full story (or most of it) take a look at the page “Evolution of a Brand”.

All the illustrations are created by sourcing close to 1,000 botanical illustrations of individual plants that are in the public domain, creating new plant illustrations as needed and blending selected images together. This enables me to create beautiful imagery faster than doing it all from scratch.

To create a true feeling of old paper for the label, I sourced the opening and ending pages of 300 year old journals until I found one with just the right tones and age spots.

The individual seed packages are made to be easily updated or changed if required (sometimes there are shortages or crop failures of specific seed varieties. The packaging is all done so that it can be easily updated for the same reason. I use a local printer who can do reasonably quick turnaround of smaller quantities.

Because of the depth of the tins they can still stand up on a shelf. A row of three or more of the Garden Kits makes a huge impact on a shelf. They also stack well for more economical shipping. I may have finally found Strathcona 1890’s sweet spot.