2007-2012
Industrial Retail
Designing for multiple industrial retail brands
Apache Hose & Belting, Inc. was a fun and fulfilling place to work. With several retail product lines and an international industrial conveyor belting product line, Apache needed logo guidelines and organized branding for retail products. My work there helped the retail division to provide exciting product lines to buyers for smaller hardware chains and large big box retailers.
My contribution included:
- Logos and branding for retail products
- Working with off-shore print vendors, as well as local vendors
- Award-winning package design for entire product lines
- Art direction, photography and photo retouching
- Companion retail marketing materials, such as shelf talkers, aisle violaters, and retail signage
- Catalog design
- Web mainentance and content development
The Baler Belt countertop sign at right was designed for farm stores to display.
Product line trade dress and logo guidelines
Package design included entire plan-o-grams of complete product lines, such as hydraulic hose and accessories, compressed air products, and baler belt product lines.
A new concept in color for masculine products
In a world of boring, old-fashioned packaging, we needed to give some POP to compressed air hose products to stand out! Our products were in nationwide, larger hardware chains, although we also offered different brands for smaller chains. (scroll down to see those). These were repackaged for specific customers.
For the ShopPro line, I selected jewel-toned, gradients for packaging, and an elegant approach toward garage accessories. Copious photo shots and Photoshopping brought elegance to the mix. I designed the ShopPro logo, conducted all photo shoots, designed all packaging for this complete plan-o-gram.
While I worked on several product lines and developed all packaging for the baler belt, pressure washer, and hydraulic retail packaging and plan-o-grams, unfortunately I only have a few images of those.
In some cases, the same products were repackaged to give a new, branded look for specific hardware chains, such as the Guaranteed Air brand at left. Other product lines, such as fuel hose products for farm stores were designed to offer a new look for retail products.
Pressure washer products redesign
Many retail big box stores require a redesign every 2-3 years for entire product lines. The pressure washer accessory line required new photos and a design refresh. Since most of our photo shoots happened off-season (not during warm weather), copious photo editing was required to make applicable photos.
In keeping with the original Universal branding, and the color of the products, I went with a colorful, coordinating lables, which also made for easily, identifyable product differentiation.
Before and after design appears at right, and photo shop examples are below.
Photoshop skills for off-season editing
Nothing complicates a photo shoot like bad weather or not having a studio for product shots. Many photos had to be taken on the plant floor without adequate lighting or backdrops. This gave me the opportunity to have a lot of fun with Photoshop – such as adding water or suds, and combining images with outdoor stock photos.
Photoshop was used for the other brands I worked with as well, such as retail suction/discharge hose products, water hose products, and more. Photoshop meant all deadlines could met regardless of the season, and we had plenty of images for products, web site, and catalogs.
Catalogs and web sites
Product catalogs were designed annually and required updated cover and interior images, as well as updated product information.
Shortly before I left Apache I provided several design concepts for updated web site design, as well as comprehensive e-commerce and Google Ad marketing plans. The notion of an e-commerce site was very new to Apache at the time. One of the concepts offered a mascot, the Apache Guy, which I had illustrated, although we had not yet tested the concept with our markets at the time of pitching the concept. The site concept designs are shown below.
The Safety Line
As a product manager, the BeSafe safety product line was one I proposed as an add-on product line to existing customers.
While these products received positive reviews at trade shows, due to suppliers’ minimum order quantities we were unable to get to the profit margin needed to introduce the line. Such is the dilemma with introducing new products! The design was good, however (and won design awards), so I’m including it here.
My experience is varied, however my focus has always been creating tools which result in tangible sales. It's my hope that my background can help a manufacturing company increase sales based on marketing communications, working hand-in-hand with product development, customer satisfaction, and forecasting customers' needs.
Manufacturing & Corporate
- Plant management
- HR, policy development, and people management
- Procurement
- Project managment (print and construction)
- Safety & OSHA training and enforcement
- Logistics
- Business Planning
- Presentations and general leadership
Marketing
- Content Development, SEO, SEM, PPC
- Web Design
- Product Marketing
- Marketing Management
- Brand Management
- Published author
Design
- Creative Direction & Art Direction
- High proficiency of the Adobe Suite
- CNC operation, CAM and CAD software
- Product Design
- Illustration
- Extensive experience with a huge assortment of media - print, web, billboards, packaging, displays, etc.
