Heroes for Hire | Product Designer
I have been illustrating for Heroes for Hire since 2017. When I started, their designer had just moved on and they needed a replacement. We’ve developed a process which shortened their turn around time from final handoff to the manufactures.
The owners and I collaboratively put ideas on a Trello board and discuss the impact and interest for certain designs. Some are just pop references, other designs evoke a sense of nostalgia.
I enjoy designing pins as it serves as practice to my roots as a creative. It allows me more freedom and subjectivity than my usually day to day.
Process
Mood Board
Once an idea is chosen from our brainstorming sessions, we start a mood board. This allows visibility to stakeholders on certain design elements we want to implement. In addition, this allows us to research similar pins to talk about how we would like to execute ours differently.
Sketch/Digital Illustration
Depending on the design I usually go straight into Illustrator (sometimes I sketch the designs out and upload them). In this step I work on various elements we’ve agreed on and create mock-ups for stakeholders to sign-off on.
Prep for handoff
After the design is signed off by the stakeholders I then color match to pantone swatches and label them for the manufacture for handoff. This assures that the colors we choose will be accurately represented when produced.