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!)
How your next mistake might be your best move yet…
👇 How a packaging accident made Angosturas Bitters iconic.
Ever wondered why the Angostura Bitters label is too big for the bottle?
This is one of my all-time favourite pieces of packaging design. And not because it’s perfect - but because it’s not.
The oversized label wasn’t some daring, maverick design choice. It was a straight-up mistake. 😅
One brother designed the bottle.
The other designed the label.
Neither thought to check in with the other 🤷♀️.
Cue: one of the most recognisable “oops” moments in packaging history. 😂
At the time, I imagine it felt like a major oversight (I would not want to be in that meeting 🫣). But instead of scrapping everything, they rolled with it.
And today? That misaligned label has become their signature look - a weird, wonderful quirk that sets them apart on shelves everywhere.
So. What can we take from this blooper?!
👉 Embrace your mistakes. You never know when a mess-up might become a moment of magic.
👉 Break the mould. Sometimes things feel “off” simply because they’re different. And different is good, especially when you're a small brand trying to stand out. So next time something goes a bit wrong… zoom out. It might just be the thing that makes you iconic.