wildlife
The issue.
tldr
More young people than ever are struggling with mental health issues.
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If we care about their future (or ours!) we should bloody well do something about it!
The full shebang
The past decade has been challenging for everyone’s mental health. The news keeps getting grimmer. The digital landscape has left us comparing more and connecting less. The pandemic had us physically separated and isolated as well.
We all have our war stories, but there is no doubt that some communities suffered through the trauma and isolation of covid more than others. And although it was older people who suffered physically from covid, it was young people who lost an important chunk of their developmental years.
It’s no wonder that in places like the UK, the likelihood of young people having a mental health problem has increased by 50%.
According to a 2023 NHS Report, one in five children and young people in England aged eight to 25 had a probably mental disorder.
That’s a stat with massive individual and global ramifications.
The world has a lot of big challenges ahead of us. And if we’re going to rise to meet them, we need to find a way to help this young generation feel and operate at their best.
The idea.
tldr
Gardening is for old people, but damn is it good for your mental health!
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Let’s change the definition
of ‘gardening’ to suit the lives and preferences of young people.
The full shebang
At the risk of sounding like a boring old so-and-so…
I’ve discovered that gardening has improved both my physical and mental health, and have been surprised by the opportunities it has provided to connect with both my family and my community.
If I’d discovered this hobby earlier, perhaps I would have saved myself a lot of physical and mental angst. But my young party loving inner city dwelling self thought gardening was boring as hell.
Which makes me question:
What would it have taken to make the young East Londoner I was, take up gardening?
Or a more useful question:
How do we make gardening relevant and interesting to a generation of young East Londoners facing some of the toughest mental health challenges in decades?
I think the answer lies in not expecting young people to change to fit the cultural norm of ‘gardener’.
But what if we changed the definition of gardener to suit ‘young people’?
Recent years have seen disused railway arches across London released and rented to businesses and community organisations. Hence sprung the idea of an unconventional ‘community garden’ in my old East London haunts.
My imagination sees a set of Railway arches in Hackney transformed into a space that reflects the lifestyles of most young East Londoners, and weaves in opportunities for connecting with nature and eachother.
Turning the ‘community garden’ into a bar and cafe will go a long way towards making the project financially viable. But a sustainable and resilient business model would also include strategies such as paid workshops, plant and merchandise sales, venue hire and outsourcing garden maintenance and plant hire to businesses in the local area.
The name WildLife plays on a range of themes including nature, big personalities and the hustle of inner city life.
Like everything else about the venture, the logo is bold and unconventional for a garden space. The visual brand celebrates the colour, diversity and irony of the humans and plants in our East London community.
The viability of the social enterprise depends on scale, so it’s critical that we quickly get the attention of the community – whilst keeping advertising costs low. Hence some good old fashioned awareness campaigns – inspired by the local music scene.
Whether a user has scanned a QR code on a website, ad or sticker – or clicked through via social media – the likelihood is that they’ll be using a mobile phone at the time. That’s why I took a ‘mobile first’ approach to designing the website to ensure it worked clearly and effectively at every point of the user journey – from sussing the joint out, to booking events, to ordering food or drinks and buying merch..
You can tell I got carried away with this project, because I even stylised the website UI iconography to reflect what I think could be a very stylish community garden under the railway arches in East London.
Wanna see more?
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