Massive Deadlines Mean Nothing

Especially if a client wants you to physically go to the store and see a competitor’s product.

Given the chance to actually step away from the computer, SOME OF US GET SIDETRACKED. Just sayin’.

With a great deal of eye rolling and under-the-breath cursing, I drag myself to a major chain store to procure “competitor product”.

Lookey what I found:

My stuff, people!

BUT my, oh my, what a mess.

So I settle down on the floor  (crossed-legged) and proceed to organize MY PRODUCT! I’m humming along, oblivious to the outside world, when a woman’s voice says

“Where would I find bath powder?”

Me (slightly peeved):

“I don’t work here.”

Woman looks confused and says

“Oh. I thought…you were stocking…um…”

To which I reply…

“These are my bottles!”

Yup. Could’ve said other stuff like I DESIGNED THESE…but NO. I had to sound like a psychotic freak.

She backed off slowly with a look on her face like

“Oh lord, this is a respectable store. Should I call security?”

Instead she swiftly removed herself from ME, the woman who was organizing her: quote, un-quote bottles.

I procured the competitor sample before I could finish organizing "my bottles" and ran for the safety of home and my massive deadlines.

Send help.

(From time to time, deadlines will dictate I take you along on my crazy journey towards pleasing clients and meeting their deadlines. Just know that I'm thrilled to be making a living artistically but still frustrated to be pulled off course from my new journey with Catberry Tails. Hope you'll forgive and still enjoy my life in pursuit of these goals!)

A client backed a truck up to the house and unloaded lots of work!

ok. NOT a truck. A BMW. A big BMW.

Here are boxes I designed 3 years ago.

Don't remember which store they were sold in BUT a brand new national chain store (can't mention who yet...oh, espionage...oh top secret...oh exciting) wants to run a huge series of products with this look.. FIrst up are storage boxes that look like books.

My client left me book box samples to assist in my own design process.

Here is my adaptation using the basic design elements from the storage boxes I designed years ago.

(ignore the little blue lines and where it says FRONT - those are dielines used by the printer)

P.S. Had to ditch the girls that were on the older boxes. This particular company has a very diverse ethnic demographic. Can't just feature only white women on packaging. So we went with a travel (Eiffel Tower) theme. Had to gather vintage images and some of my own stock of hand painted backgrounds to place the Eiffel Towers on.

I'll continue with the process this coming week. I hope to keep you entertained even though the Chairman is NOT happy. More on that later.

Then this happened.

"Stop the massive deadline you are currently working on and do this EVEN MORE MASSIVE DEADLINE!" says the frantic client with sweat beads pouring through the phone onto my desk.

"We need labels for liquid hand soaps infused with scented oils! NOW!"

These were fun to design! Modern with a twist. STILL...it's hard to be interrupted on one assignment and switch gears to be creative on a completely different brand, with a completely different look.

The Chairman, per my suggestion, is watching the grass grow. Not sure if he's having fun but does claim he's becoming enlightened and now wants to take Yoga classes with me on Thursday nights.

Purrs from the land of art and Catberry Tails. I hope you all had a fabulous holiday weekend!