FISKARS PACKAGING & PRODUCT DESIGN
Majority of work I completed at Fiskars centered around packaging for their home and craft products. Fiskars is a centuries old company, best known for it's Orange Handled Scissors, but who holds the philosophy that, "all things, even the simplest, can be made better or smarter." It is through this frame of mind that they engineer and develop products for all aspects of the home, from outdoor yard care and home improvement, to sewing, crafting and the classroom.
Trilingual Packaging
During my time at Fiskars, one of their primary customers, Michaels, decided that all packages sold in their stores needed to include equal representations of English, French and Spanish. Following rules set forth by Michaels, I helped develop a trilingual packaging format that Fiskars continues to use for their craft products. Examples shown here are the more complicated boxed paper trimmer packages.
Illustrations
Line drawings are included on backs of package for products that required explanations on how to use. While this illustration style existed before my time at Fiskars, it was something I frequently created. Unique drawings were designed for most products and usually required multiple steps to create. We would begin by taking photos of the product in use, to establish the clearest angle from which to build the illustrations.
SchoolWorks Packaging Refresh
SchoolWorks® is a non-Fiskars branded student scissors sold exclusively at Walmart. After years selling the same old scissors and package, Walmart asked Fiskars for an update of both. Packaging concepts were based on colors and drawings provided by our product engineers. Packaging no longer needed to keep the SchoolWorks logo, and needed further separation from Fiskars branded products, which have flood orange packages. While I favored designs with unique packages for each scissors color, Walmart made the final decision, keeping the red paint splash for all packages.
Product Design
Fiskars also produces seasonal and specialty craft products, which provided an opportunity for me to assist in product design. Anything from the seasons, holidays, and special occasions served as promotional items to increase product in stores. Shown first here is a selection of designs I created for Fall lever punches. My design for a witches hat, later named, "Hat's Off," was selected for production.
Other product designs include stamps, scissors handles (for both Fiskars brand and Gingher), and letterpress plates for the Fuse Creativity System. These items in particular have product specific design restrictions in order to meet Fiskars quality standards in reproduction. For example understanding that risk of warping for patterns on scissors handles, or line width minimums for letterpress plates to insure they aren't broken under the pressure of the diecutting machine.