1canoe2

Artist + Product Designer
{ October 2018 - Present }

The Company

1canoe2 is a wholesale and e-commerce paper goods and lifestyle brand creating products such as planners, calendars, greeting cards, puzzles, notebooks, and a variety of stationery and home goods. Along from our e-commerce site, 1canoe2 product sell in boutiques across the world and in larger retail stores like Target, Books-a-Million, Barnes and Noble, and Anthropologie.

Role

In October 2018 I was hired as Junior Graphic Designer and then promoted to Graphic Designer in February 2021. As part of a small team, I worked on a variety of projects, including marketing, social media, packaging, product design, website management, and even teaching several art skills classes. Inked Brands bought 1canoe2 in December 2021 and I continued my role with the brand as we restructured. I shifted to Product Designer + Artist by April 2022, creating hand-painted illustrations for use on original products. I now work with a team remotely to create product collections from concept to completion. While painting I film and photograph my work for marketing use, I then scan and edit the illustrations before designing them into various product. I often collaborate with other designers on the team to create product designs and patterns.

Additionally, I am the project manager for our monthly stationery subscription box. I plan a collection of greeting cards to include in the box, including existing and original designs. I also create the coordinating collateral, such as the mailing envelope, enclosure card, and the occasional freebie item.

Skills: Painting and illustration, product design, packaging design, pattern design, marketing, copywriting, lettering, layout design, social media planning, and content creation. Creative collaboration, communication, independent time management, detail oriented design, and organization.

Illustration

As an illustrator with 1canoe2, I use gouache to hand paint designs for use on original products. With the team, I help create concepts for products. I then present more robust ideas and sketches, paint the designs, digitally edit and design products (including pattern creation), and prepare work for domestic and overseas manufacturers. There is a lot of collaboration with other designers who use the same paintings to create additional product.

Several projects involve collaborating with the other 1canoe2 artist to coordinate artwork in a collection. This is especially important for products like calendars where our individual work is used together in one product. In these instances, it is essential that we effectively communicate with each other and the rest of the team to ensure a quality, cohesive customer experience. In general I worked closely with the other artists and art team to adjust our painting styles to coordinate.

All of my illustration work goes through various processes for brand approval. It’s important I work within our branding to create a strong visual identity for 1canoe2 products. This means advocating for brand image while being flexible and responsive to feedback about illustration and product design with brand success in mind.

Product + Packaging

I work with the team from concept through production to create 1canoe2 products such as calendars, planners, journals, puzzles, and tea towels to name a few. Each product form has it’s own set of needs and requires flexibility and problem solving for the best customer experience. Our longer form paper goods like planners and journals involve thorough layout design. Products like puzzles and card box sets focus on packaging design with special consideration for a boutique retail setting.

See more examples of my packaging design here.

Greeting Cards

Greeting cards are a majority share of 1canoe2’s business. I create many card designs throughout the year as we try to consistently offer new options that resonate with our audience. In addition to design and illustration, I write copy for greeting cards for all occasions. This ranges from silly birthday puns to sincere condolences. While there is a lot of opportunity for collaboration, I often brainstorm greeting cards independently and present ideas to the team.

Hand Lettering

I do lettering for product design and marketing assets. We primarily use a brush script style for most items, using an iPad app and customized brushes.

Marketing

While I have moved away from marketing projects as part of the transition to Inked Brands, in the past I had been responsible for email marketing, website management, marketing collateral, and customer surveys.

With our small team, I helped with email strategy for both retail and wholesale customer audiences on multiple platforms. I was also solely responsible for copywriting and design while working with our photographer to create relevant content for each campaign. This included creating graphics and gifs that could then be used on social media as well.

1canoe2 had several evergreen marketing collateral pieces that were regularly updated. I created seasonal shipping stickers, shipping postcards, free monthly downloads, and others as needed. There was also wholesale marketing collateral like sell sheets.

Social Media

Historically, I have helped with copywriting and strategy for the brand’s Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, in addition to creating graphics and gifs for social content. You can see some examples of those gifs here. I was also the social media manager for our small brick and mortar shop. Currently my primary role for the brand’s social media is filming and photographing painting process and lifestyle content - although from time to time I’m still asked to help with copy writing or on camera content.