Gardening is one of my many hobbies, I like to think about low and high tech related ideas about how could we make gardening (and agriculture) more effective. this one was waiting in my drawer until 2014. it was a course called “plastics 101” and the tutor (Avi Cohen – design44) came to us with an LED flashlight and told us to redesign the case, with the included components, to meet a new scenario.

I smiled, and Immediately Sketched down what I had in mind. It was the shape of a sprout of some sort, a leaf or a mushroom, an objectification for the godmother fairy of the garden.

“Cleon” makes you care better for your plants. Whether you place it in a planter or in an outdoor garden. It reminds you to water the plants when it’s dark – and tells you which land is dry in which is moist – which also means you know if there is not enough drainage.

The course was mainly focused on design for injection molding – so I thought about having fun with it and committed to a complex, top heavy, organic shape.

The Product’s ribs and bosses are meant to keep the shell firm and hold the components together, but I couldn’t think of seeing rectangular grids through the glass clear polycarbonate lid. I built a leaf-like structure to support the console.

I had a strong commitment to make this product adhesive free and still waterproof, so everything had to snap together perfectly.

Later I found I could create a diagonal faced mold, making the product’s ribs and bosses a supporting skeleton for its vertical structure when being stuck to the ground.

This project focused on light, but my head is still working and my drawer is still full. I am searching for ways to measure different parameters from the soil (such as acidity and conductivity), making it part of the “Internet Of Things” – creating smarter interfaces between us and our environment.