CULTIVATE

My last semester of grad school, I designed a plant service for mental health. I don't have a green thumb, but I love the ritual of taking care of plants. Through this, I realized the similarities between taking care of yourself and taking care of plants.

My role

Lead Designer

Highlight

Pre-Accelerator Program Finalist

THE PROBLEM

63% of African Americans believe depression is a personal weakness

A history of stigma created an unrealistic view of mental health. This tension makes building a relationship with mental health inaccessible to many black people. Though self-care services, like Headspace, aim to make understanding the mind more accessible for many people — none of these services take into account the complexities of race and mental health.

What if we could create a common language about mental health in an uncommon way?

THE SOLUTION

CULTVATE is a self-care service that plants, nourishes, and grows your relationship with mental health

At the root is an experience of tending to a living plant

Through the metaphor of plant care, CULTIVATE breaks down mental health concepts into more relatable and digestible bits. Plants are an important piece of CULTIVATE. Though plants have a lot of natural benefits such as purifying the air, plants here are important to serving as a physical representation of mental health. Mental health is intangible, but by relating it to a plant (a physical object), mental health becomes a living thing with a set of specific needs for survival.

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A three step process

The experience is grounded in the process of empathy training. Empathy Training focuses on teaching and reinforcing habits to build them over time.

CULTIVATE happens in 3 stages.
Stage 1 is Activation, the onboarding experience. Stage 2 is Cultivation, the core loop that focuses on building skills to reflect and talk about mental health.
Stage 3, is Propagation. This stage is about spreading this toolkit by sharing your plant clippings with another.

Monthly Seedling Packets for targeted growth

Each month, a Seedling Pack arrives via mail. These activity booklets center on a monthly theme and contain a relevant lesson and an attainable task or habit to practice on your plant.Information within the Seedling Packs are designed to be highly relatable.

It's important to acknowledge that the lived experience of black people is unique. This allows for topics centered around – Microaggressions, Police Brutality, Spirituality, and much more.

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Dear Diary...

CULTIVATE felt like a miraculous culmination of everything I strive do as a designer. Throughout the process, I grew professionally and personally. I learned how to embrace my vulnerability to ask the hard questions, honed my visual design skills, and ultimately created an experience that is intentional throughout all interactions. I guess you could say it cultivated me (eww that was lame).