office depot hq
From 2014 to 2016, I worked as a packaging graphic designer in Office Depot’s headquarters’ private brand department. This was right after Office Depot acquired Office Max, and I was one of the designers hired to help convert the hundreds of Office Max products’ packaging to Office Depot branding. There were a seemingly endless amount of skus that were acquired from Office Max that needed to be updated from Office Max look to the Office Depot look.
There were also product lines, like the Highmark breakroom products that needed a lot of updating. I was part of a team that worked on a brand standards sheet and rolled the branding out among the different products. Among other things, there were hand sanitizers, hand soaps, tissues, paper towels, “bath tissue” (we mustn’t say toilet paper!!), plastic utensils, paper cups, paper plates, and more.
Above: Hand sanitizers (my role was applying brand standards to various dielines, finding and editing stock photos, and sometimes product mockups)
Above: Highmark plastic utensils (my role was applying brand standards to various dielines, finding and editing stock photos, and sometimes product mockups)
Above: Highmark paper towels (my role was applying brand standards to various dielines, finding and editing stock photos, and sometimes product mockups)
Above: Highmark facial tissues (my role was editing the pattern to fit the dieline, applying brand standards to product labels, finding and editing stock photos, and sometimes product mockups).
I also did a fair share of photo retouching. Before and after images to adjust accents to new more modern color scheme for furniture photos for the website.
The below weren’t part of the Office Max inheritance, but I also worked on this series of 36 dry erase boards. And I worked on many more similar skus during my time there. The team there was really talented and funny. I learned so much from them! I had one of the best bosses I’ve had during my career. He was very supportive of the designers learning new skills and sharing with everyone. I left to take care of my newborn son and to do freelance. I ended up coming back to Office Depot a couple years later, but to a different department. It was a great experience in my career!
Above: dry erase boards. My roles: photo retouch, production, mockups
DYNO, LLC (Singer sewing)
From 2016 to 2018, I was a freelance production designer for a company that made various Singer® branded sewing accessories. These accessories sold in stores such as Joanne Fabrics, Target, Walmart, and more. I worked mainly in Adobe Illustrator setting up the artwork to fit the dielines and also in Adobe Photoshop for the product imagery. We made a lot of mockups, both digital and physical. I always enjoyed the process of making the physical mockups.
Above: packaging line review for Target. Roles: Production, mockups, photo retouch.
flooring tools
Between 2009 and 2013, I worked as a graphic designer at Q.E.P. Co., Inc. corporate headquarters (a global tool and flooring company). My role consisted of designing and applying branding standards to packaging, signage, ads, catalogs, brochures, flyers, and more. I also worked on packaging mockups, image retouching, preparing and collecting artwork for print deadlines, coordinating with vendors, copy writing (articles, item descriptions, naming new products and brands), creating Plan-o-grams (for our vendors – such as Home Depot, Lowes, Floor & Decor, Menards, Ace Hardware, and more.)
I really loved the tight-knit group we had there. I learned so much about graphic design from my coworkers. Prior to this job, I wasn’t very comfortable in Adobe Illustrator (I mainly worked in InDesign and Photoshop), but my coworkers kindly helped me get over the learning curve quickly. Now I feel just as strong in Illustrator as I do in InDesign and Photoshop. It was at this job that I also learned to wield the X-acto. We had so many “mockup parties”, creating packaging for line review shows etc. We always had music going to keep the assembly line going and make it more fun.
It didn’t take long for me to become very familiar with dielines and packaging, working on many boxes similar to the above tile saw.
I worked on hundreds of SKUs like the above. These products can be seen in Home Depot. Similar ones are also sold (sometimes under different brand names) at Lowes, and Ace Hardware etc.
I also worked on rebranding many of our QEP products for Home Depot’s HDX brand.
QEP also had a division in the UK. Some of the brands we worked on were Homelux and Vitrex.
PRCI was the French tile and plumbing tools brand. I really enjoyed working with the people oversees on these multi-lingual projects (you see, I speak French and a couple other languages). Some of the PRCI packaging layouts included about 16 different languages, to cater to the different areas where the products were sold in Europe. Fun! Unfortunately, I don’t have any samples of that packaging, but I do have an image of the catalog of products (which I also designed!)
about me
By day, I am a marketing manager and by night I am an experienced freelance graphic artist based in Michigan. With over 15 years in the graphic design field, I have worked for a diverse range of companies and clients. I specialize in print design (including package design, catalogs, flyers, business cards, collateral), as well as digital graphics (such as email marketing graphics, animated GIFs, landing page designs, web banners and more). My work is characterized by efficiently and successfully interpreting the request and translating it into a finished design. I am excited about the opportunity to work on new graphic design projects. If you’d like to work with me (or just say hello!), you can contact me at www.giddyhedgehog.com/contact.