Description

Collagerie is a monthly subscription that provides used magazines and materials for collaging like card stock, x-acto knife, cutting mat, glue, and extras.

The service is paired with an app that provides daily prompts for collage-making and a platform to share personal collages and view others’.

Project Statement

Collagerie is all about bringing creative ritual into everyday life.
We believe in imagination exploration, and limitless play. Art doesn’t have to be perfect or polished — it can be messy and unfinished.

Whether you’re slapping something together, carefully composing it, or anywhere in between, this is your space to play. Let’s get making!

THESIS QUERY

How can digital services encourage and facilitate analog practices?

How can a digital service make collaging more accessible and community-based?

When conducting research for my Design Degree Project I focused on learning about the benefits of hobbies through books like Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Hedonizing Technologies: Paths to Pleasure in Hobbies and Leisure by Rachel Maines.

Key Insights:

The idea of a “hedonizing technology,” any technology that privileges the pleasures of production over the value and/or significance of the product
Investing one’s attention in realistic goals where skills match the opportunities for action

These ideas informed my decision to focus on a low-stakes, accessible mode of creativity.

RESEARCH

Course | Design Degree Project

Process | Ideation

Example of collage journal

Process | Visual Identity

Scrap Pocket

Subscription Box Contents

Process | Subscription Box

Process

Ideation

Despite having a specific lens with which I approached my project, it was challenging to narrow in on a deliverable that felt focused.

One night I grabbed some old magazines and started cutting out elements that felt “analog”. Using those pieces I made a couple quick collages as a means of inspiration. I went to bed and as I was lying there a lightbulb lit up. Collaging is versatile, approachable, and creative; the perfect hobby to encourage others to participate in.

The two main problems I aimed to solve were

Access to old magazines
Unsure where to start/what to make a collage about

From here I came up with the concept that would become Collagerie, a subscription box with magazines and collaging materials paired with an app to provide prompts and a space to share and view others’ collages.

Visual Identity

I approached the visual identity by first developing Collagerie’s brand voice and values.

Playful
Approchable
Experimental
Low-stakes

These values informed my color, typography, and visual language. I played around with different typefaces, ultimately landing on two typefaces for my header and subheads. I chose Bogart for its warm vintage feel, similar to Cooper Black but with a diverse range of playful glyphs, and Chelsea Market for its hand-drawn, gritty feel. For the primary visual element I created a colorful, scrappy collage.

Subscription box

Making the physical box was the most important part of the process. I needed to ensure the experience of receiving and opening the box felt like entering the world of Collagerie with all of its playful, bright, imaginative possibilities. I kept the exterior simple to emphasis the moment of revealing what’s inside.

Key Features:

Pocket on top panel for saved scraps
Inspiration booklet with examples of various collages
Personal collage journal to store collages
Extras envelope with materials like ribbon, stickers, and corner adhesives to attach collages to journal
Collage materials: magazines, cardstock, glue stick, X-Acto knife and cutting mat with first purchase

Process | Paper Wireframes

App

Creating the app was a challenge because the foundation of my project was based on analog practices. Therefore I approached the design with the hope of users spending less time on the app and more time making.