Rob Cheney Illustration

I was asked by a local marketing firm to create a package design for a client who makes automotive cleaners, car washes, etc. This was only to be a comp for a presentation, and there are a couple of other illustrators contributing samples as well. The product will be a bottle of car soap. There was very little art direction, which made me a little nervous, because I have never done package design. Not label design, but actually designing the container. They just want it to be cool, so as to get the end client excited about the idea.

And I am sort of embarrassed to say how long I spent just trying to come up with an idea. But since this was the first time I have ever worked with these folks, I really didn't want to screw this up. Of course, I never want to screw a job up, you understand, but what I mean is that because this is a new…, oh, you know what I mean.

So it was really important to me to make a good first impression, even if it meant spending more time on this thing than the budget would allow for. I didn't know where to start, so I just went on line and looked at a bunch of really cool examples of package design by designers who know what they are doing. And I mean all sorts of packaging. And finally, after what seemed like forever looking at website after website, trying to get some inspiration, I landed on the realization that I was wasting my time.

So, I started thinking. And it occurred to me that there are all sorts of really cool, organic shapes to be found within modern cars and trucks. Shapes that could be quite elegant and ergonomic, if isolated and re-deployed. So what I came up with was a bottle designed to be reminiscent of the shape of a side view mirror. And I took this illustration well past the point of being merely a comp. But like the old deodorant commercial says, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. So I hope they will like this. It was done in Photoshop.