PortfolioExperience
PortfolioExperience

PRAIRIE Tool Collection

Fall 2024
Concept gardening tool product line & brand identity for Kohler, the premium kitchen and bath manufacturer. I created a 1:1 looks-like model Hand Rake and packaging design.
Project Outcomes:
Brand & Market Analysis
1:1 CMF Looks-Like Model
Packaging Design
Product Renderings
Kohler, known for its legacy of elegantly considered, superior quality home appliances, strives to elevate  the standard of "gracious living" with a "generosity of spirit" and "enhancement of nature".
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Progressing the company's mission into a post-COVID market, Prairie, Kohler's premier gardening tool collection, adapts to its users' shifting values, pulling from Kohler's iron-forged history within agricultural equipment and its roots within the American Midwest. The Prairie Hand Rake is designed from the ground up as a concept design for the Kohler brand.
PRAIRIE™
Entering into a new age of mindful vitality, pulled from Kohler’s roots to extend the landscape of “gracious living”, launching our first line of accessories designed to connect people’s homes with the healing touch of nature.
A Changing Lanscape

Kohler, committed to the continuous development of its products to elevate users' quality of life, noted a shift in the post-COVID market towards the desire to reconnect with the outdoors.

Kohler seeks to continue its mission to provide its customers with a “greater self-fulfillment” and “enhancement of nature” by filling this clear product demand.

$
Klaviyo Software. 2020. Covid-19 Ecommerce Market Pulse
+100%
Increase in Online Garden Sales from 2019-2020
-36%
Decrease in Funiture & Home Furnishing Sales from 2019-2020
Miracle-Gro. 2021. Americans Are Growing More Than Ever
2021 Gardening Interest from American Households
Garden Center Magazine. 2021. State Of The Industry Report
Generational Spending Increases on Gardening in 2021
Klaviyo Software. 2020. Covid-19 Ecommerce Market Pulse
1/3
1 in 3 gardeners have difficulty finding the gardening goods they need
The Cultivators

Prairie is for the Cultivators. These individuals come from all walks of life - what unites them is the joy of experiencing true quality and passionate craftsmanship. These users will enjoy a gardening experience grounded by the Kohler’s foundation of superior construction and thoughtful, personalized design sensibilities.

Finding a Seed
Brand Attributes
Vast
Adaptive
Elevating
Market Positioning
Kohler's Stance
Pioneering the characteristic of dependability with the items that we supply, we will stay true to the gardening traditions that have been established for centuries. While adhering to the standard of the status quo, we will continue to push the envelope with our rigorous design process, innovating towards a reliable form of excellence.
The Prairie Style
Inspired by the 20th century architectural style, the collection emphasizes lofting horizontals that reflect the broad, flat, and expansive landscape of America’s Midwest - the home and birthplace of Kohler.

As Frank Lloyd Wright said, these built environments are “married to the ground”. Philosophically kindred with the mission of the product line for the company, the architectural movement became the sunlight that the project looked to for growth.
Wisconsin farmland
“Where does the garden leave off and the house begin?”

THE NATURAL HOUSE, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT 1954
Taliesin, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
Spring Green, Wisconsin
Frederick C. Robie House
Ward W. Willits House
Shaping Ground
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas
Blossoming Reality
Mirroring the natural curvature of the land, the asymmetric handle lofts two offset plateaus connecting to three naturally angled downard tines, together forming a continuos, flowing terrain.
Linkedin
GitHub
rlee08@risd.edu
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