Brochure Design | Bartram’s Garden

Organization Background

Bartram’s Garden is the first nationally landmarked landscape, a home for horticulture, and the oldest surviving botanic garden in North America. Located on the banks of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, the garden serves as an African Diaspora farm and Sankofa community Farm. Aside from the natural wonders nestled in Southwest Philadelphia, Bartram’s Garden holds a variety of events including free covid testing, youth bike rides, informative adventures, workshops, free boating, yoga, and more. 

The mission of the John Bartram Association is to create equitable relationships among people and nature through immersive, community-driven experiences that activate the Bartram legacy, Garden, and House, on land and on the Schuylkill River, in Southwest Philadelphia.

-BartramGarden.org

About the Project

Creative Repute was hired by Bartram’s Garden to develop a brochure design.  Our mission was to inspire visitors to embark on a journey through this living testament to American history. The goal was to create a design that resonated with Bartram’s Garden and its community while inviting and informing readers. 

How does brochure design benefit community organizations?

• Effective Communication
  • Brochures provide a structured and organized platform to convey important information about the organization’s mission, programs, services, and initiatives. They enable organizations to communicate their message clearly and concisely to their target audience.

• Information Accessibility
  • Brochures serve as a tangible resource that community members can access easily. Unlike digital content that may require internet access or specific devices, brochures can be distributed in various community settings, making information readily available to all on site, including those without digital access.

• Visual Engagement
  • A well-designed brochure captures attention with visually appealing graphics, images, and layout. Visual elements can help convey the organization’s identity, values, and impact more effectively, making it more likely that the community will engage with the material.

• Education and Awareness
  • Brochures are excellent educational tools. They can help raise awareness about community issues, social causes, or important topics by presenting facts, statistics, and insights in a clear and persuasive manner. This can foster a better-informed and engaged community.

Our Approach

To bring this brochure to life, we adopted a strategic and creative approach that considered history, nature, and design. First, we met with the Bartram’s Garden staff and researched the organization to better understand the direction for the visuals and content for the brochure. 

Early on we identified the target audience and their demographics, interests, and needs to tailor the content and design accordingly. The layout was an important aspect to determine in the beginning stages. Working with the client, we had to decide on the brochure’s size, fold type (bi-fold, tri-fold, gatefold), and orientation (portrait or landscape). The content needed to be organized logically to ensure that information flowed smoothly throughout the brochure making it easy for readers to digest. Through a series of meetings and discovery sessions, we were able to pinpoint the goals of the brochure and began presenting drafts, each time incorporating feedback from their staff. 

Aside from content, layout, branding, typography, and other visual elements, the stand-out feature was a map of Bartram’s Garden. This map served as a practical navigation tool allowing readers to visualize routes and proximity between different locations, helping readers plan their visits to the garden more effectively. Google Earth was a tool to map out the landscape for the map illustration within the brochure.

When it came to colors, the brochures’ color palette drew inspiration from the garden’s natural beauty and existing neon-style-guide, focusing on lush and vibrant greens. Overall, graphic elements were thoughtfully designed to resonate with the garden’s tranquility and history. 

The Outcome

The result of our creative collaboration was a brochure that could be a tool for much more than marketing collateral; it was designed to be an embodiment of Bartram’s Garden’s spirit. 

Communicating the mission of the garden, detailing its various offerings, and painting an inviting picture of what visitors could expect when they walk through its historic gates; the brochure helped foster a stronger informative connection between the garden and those who visit. 

Through the careful selection of content and thoughtful aesthetics, the brochure was designed to speak directly to the multi-faceted community that the garden serves; from nature enthusiasts to local families looking for engaging activities and more. In many ways, the brochure was created to serve as an informal ‘gateway’ to the garden, offering people not only directions, but also inspiration to become part of this unique ecosystem of natural beauty, history, and community involvement.  

This brochure was designed to bridge gaps, inform the uninformed, and inspire a new wave of visitors eager to experience the garden’s offerings, thereby fulfilling Bartram Garden’s mission in a tangible, measurable way.