Day in, day out I live and breathe packaging design. From a cheeky little scamp of 17 to a now, rather respectful 32 year old I've been a structural packaging designer. Starting THINK Packaging 3 years ago my skills have been available to agencies and new businesses around the globe as their very own packaging ninja, and this got me thinking… "I wonder if I could produce awesome, game changing work for myself this time?"

An idea had been rattling around my head for some time and eventually made its way into the ideas book, sketched, then straight onto CAD. Once I had cut my first prototype I stood back and revelled in the pure, natural beauty of it and like an over excited child at Christmas I started showing it off to fellow designers & friends. All who saw this instantly knew that this wasn’t just an idea anymore, this had to happen. So Rest In Pets was created…

The death of a beloved pet can be hugely painful, and it’s difficult to plan for such a sad event. But think back to your early childhood memories of pets passing away. Goldfish flushed unceremoniously down the toilet. Guinea pigs and bunnies wrapped in old tea towels, and cats squashed into shoeboxes. Surely our furry family members are worth a bit of forethought?

Rest In Pets has designed and tested a set of products that finally gives pet lovers an option. Our smaller designs use a classic coffin shape, a well known visual metaphor that everyone can relate to. It adds a sense of solemn dignity.

For the large casket, we designed a new hexagonal shape. At the end of their lives, cats are best farewelled curled up... maybe remembering one of their many afternoon naps. The hexagonal shape suits this best.

If you wish to have your pet cremated the urn is an ideal way to hold the ashes. If you wish to scatter these at some stage there is an easy pull tab to do this. Alternatively, if you seek bury your pet after cremation you could lay them to rest in one of our caskets.

Love it? - support us on Kickstarter through our website: www.restinpets.com

Or this link: http://kck.st/1282Im8

Curious Design were giving Warwick's accessory range a bit of refresh and I was asked to re shape the packaging for the ruler, protractor, eraser, sharpener & pencils set. Originally these were sold on a piece of printed card & bagged up. They were looking for something a little more stylish but would still stay streamlined and could easily hang in stores ...

With a bit on ninja cardboard engineering, the items now fit nicely on a internal fitting and housed in a sleek, curved pillow pack style carton - accompanied with a smart window & of course a hanger with a euro-hook.

Brand Design Kudos - www.curious.co.nz

Spicers have been servicing people's paper needs in New Zealand for almost 100 years, and maintain a strong global identity with operations in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States. They say that there is nothing more exciting than a blank piece of paper .... Paper is a promise, it is one half of a relationship waiting to be completed by the other half - your vision.

With this in mind they wanted to extend their already enormous paper range and add new boards that are perfect for sign & display needs.

Generally when a range like this comes out, paper companies tend to stack A4 sized pieces into a large, crude box and lob it on your desk and say "here, look at our new range .. we do really thick stuff now" You politely say "that's great news" and start the process of deciding where to put this oversized box that you've just been struck with. It generally ends up kicked under you desk or in a filling cabinet somewhere because you can't bare to look at it.

Spicers recognized this and decided to make the pieces the same size as a swatch book - easy.
The pack was designed to show off some whizzy cardboard engineering using their product and effortlessly have their new range easily accessible and more importantly ... worthy of sitting on your desk.

See their full range here - www.spicersnz.co.nz

Great artwork completed by Switch - www.switch.co.nz

This snappy dresser isn't made up by some clever graphic design ... oh no.

Entirely made from cardboard, this snazzy little sucker is the perfect leave behind when you intend to make a smart impression. Inspired by a certain English spy - this chap here presents as a nice and tidy suit. Rocking up to meetings looking rather dapper for the occasion, whilst you're wearing your tight black jeans and favourite t-shirt.

The suit jacket opens up like a charm and presents a business card, neatly tucked into the shirt pocket - nice.

Expresspak are a food and beverage packaging specialist. Their extensive experience in custom printed packaging and exceptional customer service is highly regarded by customers who are leading operators in the coffee roasting, café, convenience store and speciality food markets across the country.

Having a spot at the fine foods tradeshow - ASB Showgrounds, Auckland they wanted to grab attention by showing how creative cardboard can be ... Brilliant!

These creations below received lots of attention and stole visitors from the other stands left, right & centre. Folks sitting on the corrugated chairs, enjoying a nice tasty coffee whilst perusing the selection of products that these guys have to offer - Win.

Artwork, print/cut & photography - www.dpod.com

The 1:Face Watch empowers YOU to create change in the World.

Each colour watch represents a different cause and has a particular metric tied to it. When you buy a watch, this metric is carried out by our supporting charities. For example, when you buy 1 white watch, our supporting charity One Day's Wages provides food supplements to 16 children in the Horn of Africa.

Designing the packaging for these watches was as awesome as the cause itself ..

This pack is ALL about the watch “simplicity" is key. Using crystal clear PET - crafting/engineering a fitting, the watch looks as if it's floating giving it an edgy, modern, tech feeling. My idea behind the 2 end caps were to frame the watch as they come in black, white, pink, blue (depending on the charity)

These will change the world … Keep your eyes peeled, this is going to be BIG!

Thanks to Fam Mirza for asking me to change the world with them and to join the vision …

Check out the 1:FACE website for details & how you can get hold of these, and indeed change the world "1:FACE at a time"

www.onefacewatch.com

"So many projects, such little room to store them"

Lucid Design have created a somewhat nifty plywood modular storage system and were in need of some drawers to store projects that the design team are busy working on. Instead of using heavy, bulky and rather expensive plywood to create these we went about designing some sturdy drawers made from corrugated - white B Flute to be precise. These are self make up trays with doubled over ends to retain strength and a lengthy life span.

These are now housing recently completed and current projects whilst fitting nicely into the studios desks and cabinets. By adding a 25mm thumb hole just at one end, you can even choose if you'd like it on show or not - marvellous.

1. “Lulalu” Clip - 1 pack & triple pack

Jasper & Black are a Minneapolis based importer and distributor of stationery and giftware, wholesaling to a variety of accounts from J. Crew to MoMA to corner shops. they are a young company and their current assortment includes a company from Sweden called Archie Grand. And out of Australia, a neat photo solution from Photocurator. They were seeking packaging for their “Lulalu” clip (single & triple pack) & wanted to avoid blister packs at all costs! The product is a device to grip & hold papers etc that can be stuck to your fridge, desk, window, you name it… When you press down on the clip, it will make a click noise. When it releases, it will click as well. When pressed down, it opens a cavity which you can slide paper into (from any direction). When released, the cavity closes. They needed some nice packaging that shows off the product in full & for the client to be able to play with it in stores & hear the “clicking” With an easy load solution - here’s the answer….It’s currently undergoing step 2 - graphic design

2. Lulalu Packaging Kits"

These kits hold various combinations of the Lulalu range ....
The brief was to develop x2 "master" boxes : x1 - 5x5" & x1 - 10x10" (to keep within a planogram)

These hold multiple variables of product using different fittings (both cartonboard & crystal clear polypropylene used) The images here are just a few examples of how these packs form & some of the components are still prototypes, hence the plain creamy plastic appearance. Using a bufferwall style tray these items have a framed appearance offering a sense of value and elegance and with the mixture of polypropylene & regular board for the fittings, the products boast a floating/clean appearance. The pack is finished off with a poly sleeve with a euro-slotted hanger in the back that can be pulled up for store display. These creations are now on their way back to Minneapolis, USA to have the artwork laid down and produced for sale across the world.

3. Lulalu Range "x2 Clips"

With a plinth in the bottom for branding, a leaflet slid down the back for even more Lulalu goodness and a fold away hanger ... this pack is looking great

http://www.mylulalu.com/

Pushing the creative boundaries, FLY creative wanted to create an A3 poster that showed a destructive element ... From a conceptual image supplied I developed a stick bursting through the poster. The end result speaks for itself.

www.flycreative.co.nz

KHALID SHAFAR is a brand that creates quirky interior space objects out of stories.

Each object is designed by Khalid Shafar, handcrafted by local New Zealand craftsmen from the finest materials and decorated with quirky accessories. Mysterious elements in each object start the storytelling. Many of these objects are created to function in one way, then re-function in another. They serve many purposes and spaces – like a chair that becomes a table, or a stool that becomes a magazine rack.

Brief: To protect the item “Illusion” on all sides, 360 degrees. This product is valuable & will need to be shipped around New Zealand & for worldwide orders. Using kraft “B” Flute & engineering custom fitments, the “Illusion” stool has a protective base & lid cavity, all legs are protected with a buffered - self make up fitting with cavities for lifting out the stool & to allow for carry handles in the outer box without fingers, dirt or liquid reaching the stool.

www.khalidshafar.co.nz