Channel: Poetry

Product Design | Global, 2021

A curated, multi-sensory poetry experience travels the globe in an unassuming box.

Reflections on Channel: Poetry:

This experience launched in Spring 2021 and is still underway.

Experience description: 
All five senses were stimulated in this immersive poetic experience. Participants were guided to create an environment to explore their chosen theme with the items provided in the box (scented candle, loose-leaf tea, mystery dessert recipe, custom soundtrack). Participants could connect with each other by adding to the logbook and indulging in previous participant entries before passing the box on to the next recipient. 

Services provided:
Creative direction, experience design, materials sourcing, content creation, packaging, shipping

In collaboration with Todd Woodlan, who provided custom musical arrangements and web design.

The recycled and unassuming Channel: Poetry Box arrives at your front door.

Nested within this envelope is a note introducing participants to the box and guiding them through the first step. 

The included blindfold participants were asked to fasten over their eyes before drawing their token.

Envelopes for each track were hidden beneath their respective colored flap. Participants were asked only to open and engage with the contents in their colored section.

This envelope held paper teabags for the loose-leaf tea provided within each track. (Steep time was written on the back.) 

Ink Jar - Inspire Track
Theme exploration: Consuming poetic inspiration and returning to the ink jar when you run dry.

Pen/Quill - Create Track
Theme exploration: Writing poetry, creating art, granting yourself permission to experiment / fail / play.

Mic - Connect Track
Theme exploration: Finding / sharing your authentic voice, gaining confidence in your voice and using your ideas to inspire others.

Scented candles for each track.

Citrus Peach + Thyme (Inspire Track)
Smelling notes: Juicy summer peaches, pink grapefruit, yuzu, and light notes of raspberry and pear.

Midnight Woods (Create Track)
Smelling notes: Citrus zest, cedar leaf, rich spices, deep musk, and light patchouli

Vanilla Fig (Connect Track)
Smelling notes: Sweet vanilla musk, ripe fig, bergamot, fresh peach, candied rum, and dark amber

Once they complete their experience, participants receive an email walking them through how to package everything back up for the next participant. We provide them with the address of the person they are to mail the box to and an option to request reimbursement for shipping/handling costs.

Once shipped, the next participant will receive an email notifying them about when they can expect to receive the box as well as some mindful prompts for how to prepare themselves for the experience.

A snapshot of a participant in mid-experience.

Secured just below the "start here" envelope on the box lid, this key reveals the outline of each token and the color track they are associated with. Participants are prompted to hold their token up to the appropriate shape to determine their color and where to go next.

The box, open with contents securely packaged.

The padded envelope storing the tokens representing the three experience tracks. Participants were guided to select one without looking and follow the track it correlated to.

Inspire track items, opened and out of the box.

When scanned, these QR codes brought participants to a landing page customized for each experience track.

Scanning the QR codes on the box lid brought participants to a landing page customized for their experience track. [Above is the landing page for the Inspire Track.]

The Setup section introduces participants to the experience and walks them through how to prepare.

The Experience section guides participants through how to set up for their experience, and provides a musical arrangement complimentary to their track.

After they complete their experience, the Reflect section encourages participants to reflect back on their experience before adding an entry to the logbook and then continuing on.

The box, open, showing all its contents unwrapped.

When pulled, this tab opens the previously closed inside flaps of the box to reveal new content.

The logbook: A place to document your poetic experience and a collection of previous participant experiences to indulge in. 

The final logbook will be scanned/photographed or otherwise digitally captured and sent out to all participants involved as a shared artifact. 

Mysterious dessert recipes for each track. Ingredients, instructions, allergic warnings and substitutes were included, but not the type of dessert they were making.

Tahini Lime Cookies - Inspire Track
Tasting Notes: tart, tangy, juicy

Blackstrap Gingersnaps - Create Track
Tasting Notes: complex, citrus, spiced 

Cherry Almond Cookies - Connect Track
 Tasting Notes: sweet, musky, ripe

Kitchen prep to make the inspire track dessert.

Loose leaf tea for each track.

Bliss (Inspire Track)
Tasting notes: Chamomile, lavender, mint, jasmine blossoms, lemon verbana

Yoga Blend (Create Track)
Tasting notes: Honeybush, peppercorn, cardamom, fennel, ginger, nettles

Vanilla Roobios (Connect Track)
Tasting notes: Roobios, vanilla

The landing page for each track included a customized musical arrangement created using samples of sounds from the track they represent and then arranged to reflect the meaning behind each. 

 (Inspire Track)
Arrangement: Short, higher-pitched wave-like sounds that morph into a melody, then return to the original wave sound and then change into a different melody. 

(Create Track)
Arrangement: A complex melody that starts out distinct, then slowly dissipates or gets murky, then returns to a slightly different version of that melody. Repeat three times and on the third, the melody works itself into a song. Focused more on the mids, less lows/highs.

(Connect Track)
Arrangement: Melody that starts off less confident/bold and grows into something more dynamic, confidently as a single voice, then slowly builds as it gains traction and ends with multiple voices, chords instead of leads, etc. Lots of reverb, without it being distracting or diluting. More on the low end, keeping the mids/highs for the other two pieces.

Want to create an experience like this?

Curious, but have questions? The Playbook has answers.

Contact

Located in Portland, OR (USA)
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @altyellow.pdx

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delightfully unexpected.