Talking with a client the other day, our team realized that some folks don’t know all that Seedhouse does in a week (and what the breadth of Seedhouse capabilities really are)! So here’s a quick overview of a recent work week…and we promise it’s more fun than that sounds.
Monday – Photo Shoot!
Kicking off the week with a team meeting, we review all the upcoming deadlines and any scheduling that needs to happen. We then transition to a photo shoot with clients in attendance. Our photographer partner, John Ferrante, loads in all of his gear (lights, cameras, stands, oh my!) for a day-long product and packaging shoot. We style the product and any other food/props as needed – and even make a quick run to the grocery store when we get a brilliant idea to prop a shot a different way than we had initially planned. We’re always rolling with the creative flow. Bryan answers a few new business inquiries, organizes a pre-production call with a new printer for later in the week, and has a meeting with a research group about a new evaluation tool.
Tuesday – Refining & Pre-production Planning
The team is a bit sore from the photoshoot, but spring back to life with the work of the day. Ash dives into making design refinements to a beverage packaging project based on client feedback. Krissy reviews a survey that is going out to better understand the animal products category and the unmet needs of a client’s target market. Bryan and John take a pre-production call with a new printer to make sure that we understand their print specs and are designing to what can be achieved at their facilities. Also, Krissy steals a few minutes to research commercially-available sustainable packaging manufacturers – like Wild Kind Packaging – as we’re always searching out new sustainable substrate options.
Wednesday – Starting Creative Exploration
Jazzed from positive client feedback on a cannabis brand strategy presentation (we love our clients!), we jump into pulling clip for mood boards and defining creative directions for the packaging design exploration. The design exploration will happen over the course of the next two weeks, but we start by defining possible directions based on the strategy & positioning approved by the client team.
We’ll even head out to the stores (or dispensaries in this case) to see what shopping the category is like in real time. While we’re out, we walk other aisles and stop into different kinds of shops in order to see what we can be inspired by and pull into the category we’re working on to better differentiate our product from the competition. While the Seedhouse capabilities are pretty vast, this is our sweet spot – creating packaging and brands that are meaningfully different and stand out in all the right ways.
Thursday – Writing & Proofing
While we love to create and think broadly, mixing that kind of work with more concrete tasks helps keep our brains chugging along. It’s hard to pull creative rabbits out of proverbial hats each and every day! We’ve got to keep ourselves fresh. So we turn to the super important and very black & white work of proofing. Going through each file, we check it against our internal documents that have tracked client requests, the brand standards and changes from day one of the project.
John, our production designer, also looks at the keyline (print-ready) files and proofs them for color, layout, layer, font and spacing accuracy. We double check the spelling of everything by reading the file upside down. It forces us to read more slowly! Krissy starts work on a messaging platform for an alcohol brand, which means she further defines the brand tone of voice by identifying the main themes and supporting copy for the brand’s main points of difference.
Friday – Print Approvals & Planning
Print proofs arrive for a different client and we haul out the Pantone books to check color accuracy, print registration and overall beauty. Bryan talks to a returning client about a new line extension. Krissy writes a Seedhouse blog. Ash returns with fresh eyes to the creative exploration she started earlier in the week. In the afternoon, we gather to review Ash’s first round sketches and lop off concepts that aren’t delivering on strategy as hard as others. Bryan does a quick naming exploration for a flavor name on the drink project. Krissy designs a research protocol for an upcoming project. And we kick off the weekend at 5pm on the dot.
A lot happens and no two weeks look the same. We’re in many different stages of our process with different projects all throughout the week. If you are interested in any of the above Seedhouse capabilities (or more), please reach out.
