REAL CLIENT CASE STUDY
Growing Kiwi Gardeners
Brand Refresh / Print & Marketing Material / Website Design / Product & Packaging Design
Anita and I first connected through a local networking group. She’d heard about how I help businesses, and reached out to see how I might support her in levelling up Growing Kiwi Gardeners. A new website was front of mind, but it quickly became clear that her brand as a whole wasn’t doing justice to her vision.
Anita had a wealth of ideas and a deep passion for helping early childhood educators foster a love of gardening in children—but needed a way to present those ideas in a more polished, professional way.
The approach
We began by refining the brand—paring back an overwhelming rainbow of colours to a more functional, recognisable palette that allowed the primary brand colours to shine. The typography was also updated to reflect a softer, more welcoming tone, with a typeface that supported bilingual linguistics and aligned with the brand’s educational values.
From there, I rolled out a cohesive set of brand collateral including business cards, brochures, and flyers—giving Anita a polished toolkit to promote her services with confidence and consistency.
The work quickly expanded into two major projects: the first was a full-featured new website, complete with ecommerce functionality, an integrated online course, free activities, and a regularly updated blog. The second was the design and production of her first educational products—a vegetable memory card game and a bilingual set of flash cards.
Today, I continue to support Growing Kiwi Gardeners as their go-to designer—developing new materials, supporting the rollout of future products, and helping the brand grow with purpose and professionalism.
The website
The website became the heart of the Growing Kiwi Gardeners brand. Built on Wix, it brings together everything Anita offers into one cohesive and easy-to-manage platform.
The site showcases her products, sells directly through an online shop, hosts her online course, and provides a hub of valuable resources—including a regularly updated blog and a collection of free, hands-on gardening activities for children.
Using the content from Anita’s original website as a base, I reworked and restructured everything to better reflect her goals, offerings, and audience. The copy is warm, informative, and tailored specifically to early childhood centres—making it easy for educators to bring gardening into their programmes with confidence. The result is a professional, content-rich site that supports Anita’s long-term vision and positions her as a leader in her niche.
Product design
Bringing Anita’s ideas to life through professionally designed resources was a highlight of the project. We launched two bilingual products under the Young Gardener name: a memory card game and a set of vegetable flash cards—both designed to support early learning through hands-on play.
Each card features a high-resolution photo with bilingual labels in English and te reo Māori. I handled the full design and production process, from layout and format selection to print and packaging. The memory game includes 52 cards (two sets of 26 vegetables), and the flash cards present the same vegetables in a simple, easy-to-use format for both centres and home use.
Both products include a folded instructional insert. The memory game explains different ways to play and includes a bilingual reference list; the flash cards offer guidance for educators on how to use them in learning settings.
Printed locally in Christchurch on plastic-free matte stock, each set is housed in a custom die-cut box with a matching sleeve—designed to be functional, sustainable, and visually engaging.
Kind words
When Steph and I first met, she asked thoughtful, perceptive questions that really got to the heart of who I am and what my business is about. I hadn’t completely figured out what I wanted at that stage, but Steph listened so carefully—and I could already see her fizzing with ideas after that very first conversation!
She created an initial draft of a new website and then sat down with me to talk through every decision she’d made, explaining how the design supported my goals. After some further discussion and a few minor tweaks, we landed on a final version that I’m genuinely proud of.
At the same time, Steph rebranded my business so now it feels professional, consistent, and true to what Growing Kiwi Gardeners stands for without losing the essence of the logo I’d been working with for so long.
She also designed and produced my first two educational products: the Young Gardener memory card game and bilingual flash cards. These were something I’d been thinking about for a while, and they turned out so much better than I could’ve imagined. Steph took care of everything—from the layout and packaging to managing the print production—and brought the whole idea to life.
Steph has been so easy to work with throughout the entire process—creative, collaborative, and full of great ideas. I’m so glad I found her!
Anita, Growing Kiwi Gardeners