Creative Confessions: My Career Blooper Reel 👀
In honour of April Fools' Day, I thought I’d take a break from talking strategy, design, and shelf presence to share a few moments from my blooper reel - aka the behind-the-scenes chaos that didn’t quite make the portfolio…
1. The Display Unit Debacle 👇
At my first job out of uni, I worked for Julian Metcalfe (yep, the Pret & itsu legend). He was brilliant. Intimidating. Not someone I wanted to bombard with questions.
So naturally, I took initiative (mistake #1) and ordered 40 in-store display units without showing him a sample (mistake #2). He took one look and declared them "totally useless."
I panicked. Then I hid them around the office and smuggled one home each day like some kind of packaging raccoon. 🫠
2. The Copy Slip-Up
For a client who makes sustainable sauces from surplus food, I added their tagline to their packaging design.
“Less taste. More waste.”
Needless to say it was meant to be the opposite 😬. And yes, it ended up going to print…luckily the client saw the funny side!
3. The tassle incident
On a discovery call with a founder launching nipple covers, I somehow thought she meant nipple tassels and (trying to understand the product) asked if it was for... “bedroom play.”
We both froze.
We never spoke again.
Fair.
This just skims the surface of the mishaps I've made over the years. But thankfully for YOU, I'm now much older and wiser 😉.
✨Mistakes are part of the magic. Nobody is immune to slip-ups and sometimes they lead to the greatest innovations (see below example of how a mistake became one of the world's most iconic packaging designs!)