Industry Marketing

Year 2017

Role Product Designer

Services Art Direction, Illustration, Layout & Typography, Packaging, Pre-press Print

Corporate gifting for clients

Creating a bespoke branded client-gifting experience

Bensussen Deutsch and Associates, Inc. (BDA) is a leading merchandising agency for iconic brands such as Coca-Cola, Sony, NFL, Ford, Starbucks, and Corona Extra. While working as Design Lead at BDA, I was requested to team up with Marketing to improve their Corporate Gifting experience and develop a sleek, branded holiday gift package for clients and partners. I was the sole designer working closely with print vendors to produce final products.

This was an end-to-end project from initial conceptual design, through prototyping and art direction to finished production.

Discovery + Strategy

After gathering information through meetings and interviews with project stakeholders, I began strategizing by reviewing BDA holiday gifts from previous years and setting some goals on how to improve and create a new buzzworthy gifting experience.

Marketing Goals

Attention and awareness
Interesting and memorable
Highlight BDA’s growth and accomplishments through the year
Gifts and message get users to learn about services by focusing on quality designed products and packaging

Approach to transforming product

Creative Branding
Image references used to create a representation in the customer's mind
Interaction and association

Ways to drive action

A unique signature that serves to identify the BDA brand & heritage
Also encourages action and confidence, gives personalized message and direction to the user about donating to charity and how to use gifts

Creative Approach

Trend direction and moodboards as conceptual guides to ensure design solutions are customer-centric and aligned with objectives. *Trends sourced through WGSN and other sites throughout the internet.

Concept + Execution

Greeting Card

Rapid Concept Ideation/Sketching

First Iteration Designs

Mockups of initial concepts presented to client. At this stage, I shared a few styles based on our discovery insights and creative strategy.

Second Iteration Designs

Refined design mockup after receiving team feedback.

Concept Improvements

More rapid sketching to ideate design layout concepts after receiving more feedback from stakeholders. This iteration extends the card dimension to a tri-fold to allow for more content area where we added a look back at BDA's highlights and accomplishments for the year.

Third Iteration

Initial layout inside the tri-fold card with new content and space for sender to write a personal note.

Final Iteration

Refined final pass at the greeting card, reworking content to be more visually exciting and engaging along with new messaging in key areas to highlight BDAs accomplishments over the year. I designed a custom illustration connecting landmarks of cities across the globe where BDA offices are located, used as cover image and repeated inside the card where city names are shown on each landmark.

Used BDA color scheme, fonts, and brand style to provide a festive yet consistent experience and keep the brand recognizable.

Finished Product Render

I created final production files and worked closely with the print vendor to produce the final deliverable - choosing cardstock weights, textures, and finishes to reviewing and approving printer proofs.

Gift Packaging

Ideation and initial concept mockups

I designed a branded gift box packaging with custom inserts for each product included in the package. I presented a few color combinations, print placements and techniques, including Pantone colors, silver foil, and print finishes.

Approval Stage and Amends

After receiving feedback from stakeholders and other client services team members, I made changes to the design reflecting a more subtle and sophisticated tone-on-tone approach with the print finish using raised spot uv on the artwork details outside of the box. In contrast to the outside, I kept the inside of the box vibrant using silver foil and bright ink throughout to add interest to the unboxing experience.

Ready for Production

Stakeholders were happy and signed off the approval. I created and sent production-ready files to the printer to get a packaging prototype made - reviewing each detail and presenting it to stakeholders for a final lookover before mass-production.