I worked in-house at Zoo Med for 3 1/2 years. It was a while ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. With a large product line, there was a constant volume of work on new products and updates to existing products. Some things I was responsible for:
- Product packaging: boxes, bags, clamshells, blister packs, labels, sleeves – you name it
- Shipping cartons
- Instruction sheets
- Advertisements and flyers
- Tradeshow displays and banners
- In-house product photo shoots
- New product mock-ups
- Book publishing
- Bullet lists of stuff
When I started, there was just one part-time designer. During my time there the department grew to a crew of two-and-a-half designers. Besides the actual work and the trafficking of the projects and approvals, there was the challenge of organizing a massive collection of art files, images, and revisions – with multiple people accessing it. It had to evolve from relying on tribal knowledge of a single designer’s work. We devised a system from scratch to maintain all the assets and most of our sanity.
The best and the brightest
You know why cold blooded critters have such big eyes? It’s because they love bright colors! Turns out, that’s what makes them buy stuff. And my coworkers thought I wore sunglasses at work just to look cool.