For nearly 100 years, Cafe Bustelo has been known as one of the most expert gourmet espresso coffee roasters, with an unmistakable Latin flair. The JM Smuckers team came to Kaleidoscope hoping to celebrate this rich heritage, while exploring new frontiers with the redesign of Bustelo Cool, their line of cold ready-to-drink products.

These designs celebrate the equity that Cafe Bustelo has built over the years, but brings a new twist to the traditional Latin look and feel. My designs were two of the eight that went into qualitative testing and consistently came out on top with consumers. They were two of the three that went into quantitative testing and while ultimately not chosen to move forward, are still some of my favorite pieces.

Because of this project, I've realized that my work doesn't necessarily have to "win" for it to be a success. Cafe Bustelo helped me develop as a designer, allowed me to feel passion for my job, and ultimately gave me the opportunity to produce concepts that I'm proud to call mine...and I consider that the sweetest victory.

Good Measure was a startup CPG brand house within G-Works, an internal General Mills venture studio. The brand was on a mission to become the #1 blood sugar-friendly company to deliver convenient food that cares for blood sugar-mindful consumers. Products included the flagship Nut Butter Bars, Crunchy Almond Crisps, and Almond Butter Cereal.

While Good Measure was on its way to becoming this category pioneer, it was receiving little credit for this innovation in the space. In the previous pack design, the "Little Impact on Blood Sugar" claim took first priority over the brand logo, to the point where many consumers confused it with the brand.

To ensure that Good Measure became synonymous with this new food movement, the teams at GMI and Stone Strategy and Design shifted priority of communication so that the brand became number one, with the "Blood Sugar-Friendly" claim following closely behind.

Results showed extremely promising in testing, with consumer insights and learnings indicating exponentially improved shelf presence. The enhancements to the brand logo, vibrant blue color palette, and easy-to-decode macronutrient corridor simplifies shopper experience, propelling this brand from good to great.

COOLA, a skincare brand started in 2007, is passionate about creating beautiful product experiences that embody a happy, healthy lifestyle. They believe that clean beauty should feel as good as it is healthy, which is why their mission is to develop organic products their customers love wearing every day.

In the spring of 2020, with me as a supporting director, COOLA embarked on a graphic refresh to bring elevate out of the expected preconceptions of “sunscreen” by focusing on the full life experience of the product. Instead of just staying at the beach, we wanted to build out more nuanced lifestyle applications to showcase product benefits. It was important to showcase the experiential qualities of our products, including the notion of self care. The brand campaign focused on putting more emphasis on the individual, leading to the tagline “Start with You”

My digital marketing executions coming out of the refresh focus on how COOLA is redefining the suncare category and educating its audience so that they can decide exactly what’s best for them and which COOLA products fit into their unique lifestyle.

Hoping to uncover the future of Folgers in the ground coffee segment, JM Smuckers tasked the Kaleidoscope design team with the creation of their new coffee line, Folgers Noir. This new offering of dark roast coffee would define the mix of mainstream and premium that’s right for the Folgers brand.

Although the new line retains the trademark Folgers logo and mountainscape, they’re a modern and updated interpretation. The matte black mountains combined with just a hint of sophisticated color versioning are unlike anything currently in the category, and sure to pack a punch on shelf. 

This project not only exercised my design and strategy skills, but also my knowledge of production. My familiarity with many high-tech printing techniques, like matte finishes and metallics, was crucial in the design phase. Juggling aesthetics with costs and production efficiencies was a balancing act, but ultimately led to a successful project result.

In the fall of 2017, I became involved in Forth Chicago, an organization focused on creating intentional events that celebrate Chicago’s creative community and connect women entrepreneurs. I currently sit on the executive board as the in-house designer, managing pro-bono graphic projects and social media.

Given that the organization was started in 2012, the brand needed an update. The members felt that they had outgrown their crafty, homespun visual identity and wanted the new design to feel empowering while highlighting the unique blend diversity and sisterhood.

The three concepts I delivered experiment with these qualities in different ratios. Approachable Elegance honors the tight-knit community, while Mess & Moxie showcases individuality. Forth ultimately chose Women Warriors as its new identity – it best embodies the fierceness and go-getter attitude of the Forth community.

Bare Republic, a sister brand of COOLA Suncare, was built by a group of friends from California with a shared passion for health, wellness, and adventure. Their mission is to bring simple, safe, and effective skincare solutions to everyone.

As the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic started gaining momentum in March 2020, staples like toilet paper, antibacterial wipes, and diapers became harder and harder to find. Hand sanitizer, one of the most important items for personal health and hygiene, was one of the hardest to come by. Recognizing that fewer people were having outdoor adventures, the company quickly shifted their resources, raw materials, and manufacturing from sun protection to hand sanitizer. Bare Hands by Bare Republic was born.

The focal point of the Bare Hands packaging is a cheeky peace sign mark in the style of the parent brand’s logo, while the typography, structure, and composition delivers on the high-quality and health-focused characteristics that consumers have come to expect from Bare Republic products. In addition to being created in record time, the sub-brand was immediately successful in mass and grocery retail and helped to support the gap in the hand sanitizer supply chain.

Arrow Juice, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest producers of beverages, came to Kaleidoscope looking for a logo redesign of their popular "Fruto” brand, and package development for a new sparkling juice offering.

The new sparkling juice offering would be sold in coffeehouses, a popular hangout and cultural epicenter for young Saudi Arabians. Therefore, the design had to be fresh, unique and a product consumers would be proud to be seen with.

The inspiration for my concept was inspired by minimalism and modernity – and set out to design the “Apple” of the sparkling drink category. While the fruitiness of the drink is important, I also delivered on the promise of “sparkling” by treating the illustrations in an abstract, effervescent style. The rest of the pack remains quiet and unfussy to let the beauty of the illustrations take center stage.

At Kaleidoscope, I've had the unique opportunity to work on the Mars Wrigley seasonal business and further influence the strategic design of the portfolio. Throughout my time on the business, I've learned that developing a seasonal portfolio is complex, with many cultural semiotics playing into design.  

The seasonal variety bag strategy is one of my proudest moments as a designer at Kaleidoscope. Throughout the four main seasons, I developed a bold and recognizable style across packaging that revolved around seasonal characters and scenes. This allows consumers to quickly and efficiently find Mars Wrigley products through a system of sparkle, surprise and delight.

Seasonal design is unconventional, faceted and nuanced: each design should be distinctive, but still able to foster brand recognition at shelf and encourage repeat buying behavior. Managing design systems that span several seasons has strengthened my ability to think strategically and see the bigger picture.

In early 2017, Avon approached Coho Creative looking to reinvigorate its business by boosting sales and providing a more relevant product offering. To better compete with an increasingly health-centric target consumer group, a line of vitamins, supplements and other wellness-based products was developed.

Be All is based on the direct relationship between beauty and our bodies: all bodies are beautiful because they allow us to do anything and everything we want. In applying this thinking to the logo, I juxtaposed a clean sans-serif with hand-lettering to give the brand warmth and personality. On pack, the brand takes this idea further, mixing clean white space with colorful textures reflecting the purity of product ingredients.

I enjoyed this project not for the many design-based lessons it afforded me (creating a strong brand, application to diverse SKUs and structures, etc.) but also because it aligns so perfectly with my own values: determination, confidence and self-love.

Over the last two years, US Playing Card has set its sights on expanding into new categories. As a result, a new product in the building toy category named BLDZ was developed. The toy comes with a set of illustrated cards and plastic connectors to build various structures. To help maximize its success, USPC looked to Coho to develop a brand for this product, a breakthrough package graphics design and a versatile package structure that communicates the unique elements of the product.

My contribution to the project came in the form of three concepts, designed to the Space Explorers SKU. The first concept showcases the modular nature of the toy – each SKU would have a slightly different structure that each fit together to encourage collectability. The second maximizes the creativity and portability of the toy: dynamic doodles adorn the small vinyl pouch, perfect for on-the-go storage. The final concept embraces the fantastical, idealistic nature of the toy, with larger-than-life cardboard packaging that packs a punch on shelf.

I enjoyed being able to work on so many concepts because I was able to approach the design problem in many ways. By focusing on different attributes of the toy for each concept, we were able to narrow down the client’s priorities for packaging. In addition, exploring package structures helped me strengthen my 3D visualization capabilities.

In the spring of 2016, Kimberly-Clar Vietnam tasked Coho with redesigning their line of Huggies mid-level diaper pants (a product popular in Europe and Asia that’s a cross between a diaper and a pull-up). Their previous designs were dated, confusing and most importantly, losing to the competition, Bobby-Chan. Kimberly-Clark asked that the new designs clearly and overtly differentiate between “front” and “back”; incorporate the non-licensed character, Finley Bear and be bold, simple, colorful and active enough to test better than the competing Bobby pants.

My concept, aptly named Urban Playground, taps into the extremely relevant animé trend in Asian countries. I gave Finley an animé-style makeover and illustrated the surrounding elements in a modern, geometric style popular in Asian culture. To better differentiate between front and back, “sau”, Vietnamese for back, and garment cues like the tie-front are incorporated into the waistband.

Although ultimately it was not the final concept, Urban Playground was a favorite among both the client and the team. Aesthetics also tested better in research than Bobby pants. I attribute this project as the catalyst in uncovering my talent and interest in illustration.

Coho Creative, a brand strategy, innovation and design company based in Cincinnati, was looking for a fresh look. The creative directors encouraged their team of talented designers to submit many thoughtful and provocative branding ideas to showcase Coho’s distinctive positioning. After serious contemplation, the Coho partners chose to move forward with my following submission.

The redesigned logo is meant to express the unique duality Coho brings to its clients. Coho prides itself on delivering the exceptional caliber of design and strategy clients expect from a large consultancy firm. This is expressed in the precision and organization of the letterforms and enclosing shape. However, being a boutique design company, Coho identifies as a creative, flexible and personal firm, as demonstrated in the single blue “O” and the curved corner of the bounding box.

The proposed brand refresh leans heavily into a cornerstone of Coho’s new values: betterment. Coho hopes to continue fostering relationships with responsible brands who share its values and working to solve problems affecting the surrounding community. This may even take shape in a non-profit organization called Cohope. Every design decision made in this project stems back to the simple question: “what if?”

This brand refresh of Coho Creative is at the website.

Meijer grocery store tasked the design team of Coho Creative with a redesign of their popular line of juices, Tropical Blends. Meijer wanted the new design to reeducate consumers on the type of product they are buying; many Meijer shoppers were confused by the vagueness of “Tropical Blends.” My design was ultimately chosen to move forward into Meijer’s 200 nationwide stores.

Because of the consumer confusion, the design puts much more emphasis on versioning than the sub-brand. In addition to the hierarchy adjustment, the updated design relies heavily on vibrant imagery to provide further versioning between the four flavors and to communicate freshness and mouthwatering taste.

Refrigerated Juice Blends was recognized by Graphic Design USA, winning a 2016 GDUSA award for outstanding package design.