Mahoney’s Private Label Mixes
For more than 15 years, Mahoney’s has offered their exclusive line of soils, amendments, and mulches. These products are meticulously crafted using industry expertise and have earned the trust of local customers year after year.
Mahoney’s aimed to revamp and rejuvenate their private label blends to cater to gardeners of all skill levels. Their goal was to introduce a fresh new look and clearer packaging to make these products more user-friendly and accessible for all.
Branding
In addition to ensuring the brand became more approachable, it was crucial to maintain the brand's sense of reliability, wholesomeness, and earthiness—all while honoring its legacy as a local family-owned business since 1959. Last, instead of keeping the, “Garden Lovers” name, Rooted Goods™ was selected with future product lines for Mahoney’s in mind, envisioning additional private-label items beyond mixes (think garden and houseplant supplies). Above are a few early concepts for the branding.
Soils & Mixes
With the newly designed bags, we worked on streamlining the information to its essentials, aiming to make the purpose of the products clearer. Collaborating with a local illustrator, we crafted a distinctive collection of hand-drawn icons (shown below), strategically placed in the right column of each bag to effectively communicate their usage to customers.
The original backs of the bags contained walls of dense, complex text. We distilled it down into two sections: Steps and “Why We Love It”. We ended each bag with a nod to Paul Mahoney Sr.—with a commitment and continued promise of quality gardening products.
Icon Examples
Palette
Besides making an earthy palette, we wanted to choose colors not often seen in the garden industry for these types of products. Many existing soil bags in local garden centers or Home Depot typically feature bright, primary colors—often with little regard for the bag’s aesthetics. Our goal was to establish a unified and visually appealing palette to complement the bag design.
Mulches
The design of the mulch bags was kept simple. Having partially translucent bags was key, allowing customers to easily view the mulch color.
