Branding

I recently learned from the founder of Ballsy that the original product I design packaging for had now hit into the hundreds of thousands of sales. This blew my mind. The art I created is out there in many, many homes all over the world. More importantly, the instructional art I created is hopefully encouraging men everywhere to check themselves out for signs of testicular cancer. After all that is why I was so drawn to the project. To help raise money for testicular cancer awareness. With a percentage of each of those bottles going to charity the sales report was very good to hear. That all started back in 2020. Two years later I have designed a larger Holiday collection and a Valentine’s collection last year. For this year they invited me back. Yay!

The art direction was focused on the original bottle I design but this time applying it to a box. The doodle I created was enormous. Extremely detailed and had an over arching theme of love. It showcases a lot of characters. Mostly couples flirting, kissing and falling in love. It’s a jumble of hidden elements and fun discoveries. It’s the largest vector repeat pattern I have created to date. It was also used to create boxer shorts and socks. The final product looks great and as always, Ballsy took a lot of beautiful product shots. You can see all of the work I have created for Ballsy here and you can pick up the items here at their website.

In 2020 I was asked to design some packaging for Ballsy. A men’s hygiene company with a focus on raising awareness of testicular cancer. I created some packaging for their Christmas campaign and also their Valentine’s campaign. This year I was asked to return and design some more pieces for the 2021 campaign. It’s always awesome to be invited back to work on more items for a client. It usually means you did the job well the first time.

For 2021 I updated the ‘Jolly Jewels’ ballwash bottle packaging, the ‘Keep Your Balls Jolly’ gift box and the ‘Deck the Balls’ ball rub gift box. All of these products were available through the holiday season and featured heavily online and social media. The packaging continues the look and feel we established in 2020. It’s always great to work for a company with a positive message and a clear direction.

You can see the Ballwash Campaigns here.

Katsubō hand crafted tea is a new brand based out of Orange County California. I was asked to work with them to develop a logo and branding for packaging, retail space, uniforms and products. The logo went through many iterations but the client decided on a Samurai as it reflects the service part of their business. On every Katsubō cup you will find the face of a Samurai. The word samurai comes from the Japanese verb saburau, which means “to serve”. The typography needed to be clean and fresh with the ability to run vertically and horizontally for product application.

Packaging is the largest part of the brand because the cups, bags, foil seals and boxes are all very client facing. These items are what are taken away from the retail space. The cups also had to be mostly transparent so the beautiful drinks could be seen. The tea is really the show stopper for this brand. Sourcing only the finest Premium teas, using only the freshest ingredients and supporting organic farmers Katsubō’s teas are very special. The tea is a multi-cultural new-age fusion beverage that takes influences from: Japan, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Belgium, France, Korea and Italy. I have tried many and they are all unique and delicious.

The items designed included Logos, cups, lids, cup sleeves, bags, cup carriers, stencil, staff t-shirts, aprons, masks, drink holder, gift cards, Taiyaki box, store signage, window decals and marketing graphics for social media. A lot of the packaging utilized a pattern I created with many icons and images related to the brand. When the design was complete and the stores opened the branding worked very well together for a consistent customer experience. This project was a good change of skill sets for me. So often I am employed to do similar things but on this occasion I got to work on something very simple, yet had to tick many boxes. They have stores in Mission Viejo and Fullerton, CA. I really enjoyed this one and having tasted the products I think Katsubō is poised for a lot of growth. You can see more of the work here.

Building on the success of my work with Ballsy for a limited edition line and a holiday line, I was asked to design some branding for the valentine’s collection. The collection consisted of a new Valentine’s body wash, a gift box set, boxer shorts, and socks. A pattern was created in keeping with my past branding, as well as a new cupid character. As always, Ballsy was an awesome brand to work with. They also took great photography and marketed the product really well. It’s always great to see my art on product but when brands present it so well it makes it all the better.

Land O’ Lakes approached me in early 2019 to work on a project for their Food Service division. Land O’ Lakes supplies dairy products to retail, kitchens and schools. I was asked to create a set of characters to encourage young people to make healthier choices when eating at school. I created 5 characters based on popular products that are made available to schools from Land O’ Lakes. Cheese, vegetables, fruit milk and mac n’ cheese were the products I was given to create characters.

The final characters were a broccoli Lucha Libre, a mac n’ cheese super hero, a cow professor , a family of cubed cheese and a dashing strawberry hero. These characters needed to be bright, bold and full of movement. Using the brand’s existing color palette I tried to make each character have an individual story. Launching in 2020, these characters were used to create posters, stickers, trading cards and other promotional items. Schools across America will have these characters adorning their cafeteria walls and kids will trade these cards. Hopefully it will encourage kids to eat better and add a splash of color to their dining experience.

Brew Link Brewing Company is an established brewery in the Indianapolis area. Back in 2013, I worked with Brew Link to establish their core branding (here) and ever since I have been designing their product packaging. This year Brew Link grew into two locations. They also ramped up their merchandise and I designed 6 new t-shirts for their tap rooms. Over the past 12 months they have released many new beers and I have designed cans for five new ones. Here are the details:

1. Lil Lucid Session IPA – a special India pale ale with heavy Citra and Mosaic hops.
2. How Now Brown Cow – a salted caramel brown ale, sweet and salty.
3. Stone Cold Hazy – a New England style I.P.A brewed with tropical blend of hops.
4. Peelin’ Alright – a classic America Wheat beer with a bunch of orange added.
5. Hole In One Blueberry Edition – a sour ale brewed with jelly donuts, blueberries and lactose.

With two venues and expanding into merchandise more heavily, we made a few less beers this year but the brews remained unique and fun. Designing for Brew Link Brewing is always awesome. The freedom they afford me as a designer is refreshing. Cheers to 2020 and here’s to looking forward to 2021 and new design opportunities.