| CDU CART | Art Direction & Package Design

BJs Cart CDUs in collaboration with Farberware & KitchenAid

CLIENT: BJs and their customers

ROLE: Art Director & Graphic Designer

DELIVERABLES: 1 Cart Sign, 2 Cart Side Panels, 3 Product Packaging Cards, 4 custom CDU trays + 12 additional CDU tray designs created by designers from Farberware and KitchenAid that I reviewed artwork, dielines, and approved final proofs.

PROCESS: Lovingly nicknamed The Changing Charlie CDUs due to the constant revisions and updates needed. From the size of the CDUs to the product assortment, it seemed like there were a hundred revisions for this project and due to the short turnaround time, it definitely made it exciting! Stage 1- I created a standard CDU design (first of many) and packaging guidelines based on current style guide. Stage 2- Custom dielines for inserts were made, and I hand cut 4 CDU trays to ship directly to BJ’s buyer. Stage 3- Reviewing and approving work from contract designers to make sure the Product Cart stays cohesive. Stage 4- Last minute add, create Chef’n sign and two side panels for the cart. Lifetime Brands has many smaller brands in their portfolio, such as Chef’n (the brand I am Creative Designer/Art Director at). We typically do not dabble with other brands at the Seattle branch, so with the deadline very tight (and the BJ’s buyer liked my hand cut CDUs so much they also purchased 5 additional CDUs for the cart), this was a fun chance to work with/oversee other designers in Garden City, NY.

Creating custom dielines for inserts and hand cutting 4 CDU trays.

First Round: Not sure where the hiccup was in the chain of information, but the original cart shelve measurements were incorrect ,so we went with a higher fold back CDU.

Second Round: Upon receiving the information that the CDUs were now too high, I changed styles and went with a two box design with a much lower profile to fit snugly in the shelves.

Third Round: My sales manager wanted to show the BJ’s buyer a few initial CDU options to see what looked best on the cart. Makes complete sense, but I only was given 30 minutes to complete this task… yikes! Normally I prefer to supply a very polished example, but due to the time limit, I printed out a few rough designs, my CM snapped some cell phone photos that went to the buyer for immediate approval.

Shake Test

Got to make sure products cut into the CDU don’t fly out during transport. If curious, take a peek at my very scientific shake test.

Completed hand cut CDUs

CDUs nice and cozy on the temp cart at the BJ’s staging facility.

With the design approved, I set out to create the final hand cut CDUs, just imagine 2 days of carefully cutting cardboard with my trusty xacto knife, spray glueing, and packaging everything up. They shipped directly to the BJ’s staging facility where the buyers review product assortment. Since we were collaborating with Faberware and KitchenAid, the buyer wanted the cart to look cohesive with the Chef’n brand so additional CDU trays were needed for the staging.

Final CDUs that will be set in BJs

More cha cha changes!

At the last minute, the BJ’s buyer and the Chef’n sales team changed out the product assortment on the cart so new dielines were created to accommodate the new selection.

The buyer wanted to include in-use images on the front of the CDUs to better inform the customer on the products use so those were added to the final designs.

Sales team also wanted more visual impact for the cart and requested full signage that included a header sign with two side panels.

(Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a photo of the final cart but you can peek at the images + dielines below and use your imagination!)