again, it's been a while since I've last posted. I have some images to share from a project from earlier this year that never made it to market. after completing design and prototyping, our client at Distant Village had some internal reorganization of the company and the project went out with it.

I actually really enjoyed working with the client. they knew what they wanted and I was able to capture their vision easily through design. it's a shame this was halted.

in these images you will see a few offerings, 9 and 18-piece truffle boxes and valentine's day box.

still enjoying what I do and the lifestyle of a freelancer. i've been following another blog on freelancing for several months now and it's been very insightful for me. it is FreelanceSwitch. always good to see others are doing what I am setting out to do as a freelancer.

getting close to the halfway mark of the year, I've been averaging 43 hours/week up to this point. i've worked as many as 60 hours in a week and as few as 32 hours in a week. i did have a week of vacation so far well.

i worry about burning out sometimes, but i've found what helps keep this from happening is good sleep, some exercise, and hydration. even when I am super busy, it's hard to say no to work, especially new clients. i've been able to pass along some of my overload to other trusted designers and it's worked out real well.

not sure when i should go full-blown with my own design consultancy vs. continuing to do a bit on my own while freelancing in-house at firms. i have a feeling i'll know when the moment is right.

cru cacao

this was actually my first project with Distant Village Packaging. it has not yet fully gone into production, but we have received prototypes and shared them with the client and have added it to Distant Village's portfolio.

cru cacao handcrafts luxurious, raw, vegan, sexy, healthy chocolates. they are delicious! the owners/chefs Dereme Church and Blazej Mikulicz are very fun and loving people.

i worked on the packaging design for truffle boxes in size 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 pieces, as well as a cookie fold-up box.

for more information on cru cacao, please visit http://crucacao.com/

freelancing lately

As a freelancer, I'm always looking around for new work. I usually get a chance to see some different things. A couple recent projects of mine include a baby product, sustainable packaging for a chocolatier, a medical waste bin, and consumer product lotion bottle.

Last week I began a new freelance gig, instructing Solidworks (a 3D modeling software) at a design firm in the suburbs. My students include an older industrial designer and and older engineer. Both are looking to update their software skills and transfer to a dominating software in the industry. I'm enjoying my time there. These older fellas can be quite characters and I enjoy working with them. I work this gig 2 days a week, for about 8 weeks.

Today, I was picked up on a month-long contract with my old work Webb Scarlett deVlam. I will be there 3 days a week while spending the other 2 teaching. I'm happy to be back.

On to something visual in the post. All I have actually are images of the prototypes. What I have here is a recent design of mine to hit production and distribution. It's actually really cool and I wish I had some pretty shots. I'll look to get some. I worked through a sustainable packaging company in Chicago, IL called Distant Village Packaging. I've done work with them for about 9 months now. The client is Tierra Madre California. The packaging we created was for a gift set of their organic olive oil bottles. You'll see in the pictures, the box is made of a chipboard covered with banana fiber paper. All sustainable materials, locally harvested, and fairly traded with artisan groups in the Philippines. The box is embellished with silkscreen printing and embossed paper. It's hard to see in the pictures, but the yellow paper is actually a mesh of two yellows. I asked the artisans to experiment with this to create a more authentic look. I think it turned out well. Although.. I have yet to see my design outcome in person.


Will try to update the blog more frequently.

first blog entry

Welcome to my blog. Please enjoy the words + images + art I will share with you.

I'll start with a bang and share with you my first produced design. During my freelance contract with Chicago-based design consultancy, Webb Scarlett deVlam, I worked on a project for Kraft to redesign their Extra Virgin Olive Oil Salad Dressing bottle. Essentially, we were trying to create a structural form that would read premium and leverage the healthiness of EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil). We also wanted elements of the structure to relate to other bottles within the Kraft salad dressing family. At the same time, we had to meet manufacturing constraints such as achieving a certain volume, creating touchpoints for the production line, and utilizing an existing preform and cap closure.

Through sketching we developed a variety of concepts and then brought the winners into CAD. Ultimately, the final design was one of which I am proud to share ownership with another designer.

Let me know what you think!