When I sat down with Chloe and Adam Hanson, the owners of Flying M Coffee in Nampa, ID, they shared how deeply sustainability and recycling matter to them. It's not just something they talk about, it's something they actually build into their products.

 

So why not design packaging that lives on after the coffee is gone? The Compost Companion can be repurposed as a planter or compost home for your new little plants, giving it a whole second life. The Compost Companion wasn't just a design project. It was a real product with a real story and a real deadline. Working toward a limited Earth Day launch pushed me to navigate vendors, explore printing methods, and dive deep into the world of corrugated materials.

 

That pressure was invaluable. It gave the project stakes, and it gave me my first real experience collaborating with clients, Chloe and Adam Hanson, owners of Flying M Coffee in Nampa, ID, who were just as invested in the outcome as I was. When I sat down with them, it became clear that sustainability wasn't just part of their branding, it was something they genuinely built into everything they made.  That conversation shaped the entire direction of the project. Rather than designing packaging that gets thrown away, I designed something with a second life: a compost home and planter that gives customers something to do with the bag long after the coffee is gone. The Compost Companion leans into storytelling to make the product feel like more than just packaging.