Intention: Create a website to increase awareness and allow people to support Seedlings Cooperative, a Hudson-based maker-owned market, refinery, and education space.

Impact: Online presence that strengthens visibility for Hudson’s creative community, connects makers with customers and collaborators, and expands access to educational programming.

Lesson Learned: “We know more than we know. We don’t know all, but together we know a lot.”

Seedlings Co-op is a maker-owned refillery, market, and workshop space. Founded by local women, the co-op is built upon principles of regeneration and reciprocity with one another, the locale, and the earth.

Seedlings facilitates economy for local makers, artists, artisans, herbalists, florists, farmers, purveyors of health and home goods, natural dyers, tailors, educators, healing creators, and more.

Seedlings already had a site, but it needed an update to better suit the look & feel of its makers and the hotel and spa they were connected to.

Immature and inaccessible color story and unresponsive layouts

Arbitrary font selection and inconsistent storytelling

Cooperatives had a variety of ways of organizing their websites, depending on the type of co-op they were, and their need for an online presence. Of the ones with a significant online presence, we found that:

Most were approachable and easy to read, with sans serif fonts and simple imagery

Prioritized in-person transactions for seasonal or small-batch items, although many had opportunities to support or donate online

We wanted to maintain the approachability, yet give a nod to more luxury due to the physical location of Seedlings CoOp being within a hotel/spa. We also needed to think about designing from an accessible lens and ensure any future marketing could be done by cooperative members with varying levels of design app knowledge.

Some ways we created an approachable yet luxe feel:

Logo and Illustration update: approachable, monochromatic handwriting/doodles elevate the execution

ADA Compliant color palette & warm neutrals: adding more contrast and warmer neutrals to the color palette create more inclusivity and understanding of a wider audience

Streamlining Experience: combine the subscription and membership pages so users could more easily understand the difference between the two

Accessible fonts: advised branding on font options that were available for free, on squarespace, and on canva.

We also utilized textural elements and photos of from the store-front to bring physical remnants online, and added an about our members page to put real faces to the makers behind the brands at Seedlings.