Eleva
Shopping for a plant by the shape of the pot it lives in.
Self-initiated concept
The problem
Plant e-commerce is organised the way a nursery's stock list is organised — by species, in Latin. Almost nobody shops that way. They shop for a shape that fits a corner, in a colour that fits a room.
The solution
Search by pot shape as a primary navigation route — cylindrical, rectangular, conical, square, oval — drawn as line illustrations rather than named in text, sitting alongside conventional category browsing for people who do know what they want.
The result
A concept explored end to end: home, category browsing, product cards and the styled-interior imagery the category is actually sold on. Self-initiated design work, not a client engagement.
01
Overview
Eleva is a self-initiated e-commerce concept for plants and planters — a storefront with shape-led navigation, featured products, styled interiors and a full catalogue.
02
Context
Design work I started for myself, to work through a retail category with an unusually visual purchase decision. It was not commissioned and it has not shipped.
03
Challenge
Two shoppers, opposite needs. One knows they want a Peperomia. The other has a bare corner and a rough idea of the colour. A species-first catalogue serves the first and abandons the second, who is the larger group.
04
Approach
Shape becomes a primary navigation route, drawn as line illustrations rather than listed as text, because the person browsing this way is thinking visually and would not recognise the words. Conventional categories run alongside it for the shopper who already knows. Product cards carry price, discount and colour variants in one line. Styled interior photography does the work catalogue shots cannot: showing the plant in a room, which is what is actually being bought.
05
What I did
- 01Concept, proposition and storefront structure
- 02Shape-led navigation as an alternative browsing route
- 03Interface design: home, category, product card and collection
- 04A visual and typographic system for the brand
- 05Presentation design for the concept itself
Concept
Not shipped.
Worth showing.
This is self-initiated design work rather than a client engagement — a product category taken apart properly, end to end, because it was worth understanding. If it is close to something you are building, that is a good conversation to have.
Next project
Chuki