I recently stumbled upon Richard Baird’s post on BP&O for an elegant organic fertilizer packaging (島の土 / Island of Soil) made by Osaka based design studio UMA. One would never have thought that packaging for fertilizer could be so elegant and straightward compared to the rest of its competition out in the market.
There is a sensitivity to colour, layout and illustration you do not often see given to such a product, lending it an unexpected quality. It finds a balance between the utility of large scale agricultural practice and the care and craft of a professional or home gardener, presenting fertiliser as a higher value product and further away from the perceptions of commodity.
—Richard Baird
The attention to small details and bold typography seems prevalent throughout the rest of UMA’s body of works—all designed with a certain sense of quietness, humbleness, elegance, and confidence that you don’t see too much outside of Japanese graphic design.
Photo: Yoshiro Masuda
