One of my design clients dropped off a couple loaves of fresh bread the other day. It wasn’t long before I was getting out the bread knife and untwisting the twist-tie. Then I noticed the label.
I could read the name, I could read the ingredients, but the beautiful, bright logo I had designed for them was just a dim shadow of what it should have been. When they had printed that label, our good friends Yellow and Magenta had been very tired.
I thought of the time I had spent picking out the perfect hues for that logo and perfecting the placement of each gradient– and I beamed from ear to ear!
Most designers care a lot about the implementation of their designs. I do too! I want my work to shine and I want my clients to succeed. The reason I smiled when I saw that faded logo was because to me it symbolized that my work had shone brightly on many, many loaves of bread and my clients were indeed succeeding at growing their business. I had sent them some very useful files that were being put to good use. Bread was flying out of the oven faster than they could switch their ink cartridges!
I kept smiling as I took a big bite of buttered bread. Package design is important, but it only really counts if what’s inside gets a chance to shine.
(I would highly recommend Staff of Life Bakery in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, even if I didn’t have the honor of designing their brand.)