Flores Compressi — Herbarium Aestheticum
A design system inspired by Victorian herbarium collections, dried botanical specimens, and the quiet elegance of flowers preserved between pages of time.
Colors drawn from faded petals, dried leaves, aged cream paper, and the sepia ink of handwritten specimen labels.
Three voices: Cormorant Garamond for elegant headings, EB Garamond for scholarly body text, and Dancing Script for handwritten annotations and labels.
Herbarium Vivum
Catalogue of Dried Specimens
Pressing Techniques & Preservation
Field Collection Notes
The art of pressing flowers dates back centuries, with the earliest known herbarium created by Luca Ghini in the 1530s. Each specimen is carefully arranged on acid-free paper, its delicate structures preserved for study and admiration across generations.
Botanical names follow the binomial nomenclature established by Carl Linnaeus, combining genus and species in elegant Latin constructions.
Collected in the meadow beyond the old stone wall, late June, after rainfall.
SPECIMEN NO. 247 — MOUNTED 14 SEPTEMBER 1892 — COLLECTOR: E. BLACKWOOD
Lavandula angustifolia — Lamiaceae
A measured scale from 4px to 96px, like the careful distances between mounted specimens in a collector's folio.
Gentle interactions, like turning the pages of a field journal.
Specimen collection forms, styled as herbarium catalogue entries.
Content cards styled as herbarium sheets, each specimen carefully mounted and labelled.
Rosa gallica var. officinalis
The oldest cultivated rose in Europe, prized since antiquity for its medicinal properties and intense fragrance when dried.
Bellis perennis
Found abundantly in lawns and meadows across the British Isles. Presses beautifully, retaining its characteristic ray florets.
Pteridium aquilinum
A cosmopolitan fern whose fronds produce elegant silhouettes when pressed, revealing the fractal geometry of pinnate leaves.
Lavandula angustifolia — Lamiaceae
Perhaps the most beloved of all pressed flowers. Its slender spikes of violet-blue florets retain their colour remarkably well, and even after decades in a herbarium folio, the dried stems release a faint ghost of their original perfume when the page is turned. Native to the western Mediterranean, now naturalised throughout temperate Europe.
Status messages presented as field journal annotations.
Field Note
Specimens should be collected in dry weather, ideally late morning after the dew has evaporated but before the afternoon heat.
Preservation Complete
Specimen successfully mounted on acid-free paper. Catalogue entry has been filed in the permanent collection.
Handling Caution
This specimen is fragile. Handle the mounting sheet by its edges only. Do not attempt to remove the adhesive strips.
Specimen Damage
Moisture damage detected in storage cabinet C. Affected specimens require immediate re-pressing and new mounting paper.
Classification tags for organising the herbarium collection.
A catalogue register of mounted specimens.
| No. | Species | Family | Locality | Date | Collector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Lavandula angustifolia | Lamiaceae | Kew Gardens, Surrey | 12 Jul 1885 | E. Blackwood |
| 042 | Rosa gallica | Rosaceae | Cotswold Hills, Gloucestershire | 21 Jun 1887 | E. Blackwood |
| 108 | Bellis perennis | Asteraceae | Christ Church Meadow, Oxford | 3 May 1889 | M. Hargreaves |
| 156 | Viola odorata | Violaceae | Ashdown Forest, Sussex | 18 Mar 1890 | E. Blackwood |
| 215 | Pteridium aquilinum | Dennstaedtiaceae | Lake District, Cumbria | 9 Aug 1891 | J. Whitmore |
Delicate separators for herbarium folios.
The ornamental divider, with its floral dingbat centre mark:
And a simpler variant for lighter separation:
Passages from the collector's field diary.
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. The pressed flower is nature's way of allowing beauty to outlast its season.
— adapted from John Muir, field diary, 1894
I found today a most exquisite specimen of wild violet growing beneath the hedgerow near the old mill. Its petals, though small, bore the deepest purple I have yet recorded in this parish.
— E. Blackwood, field journal, 18 March 1890