Overview
ChicoBag runs a custom products program that puts other organizations' branding onto our product line. Full dye sublimation means the print runs edge to edge, so the same tote can look like a completely different product depending on whose brand goes on it. It's one of the company's biggest revenue drivers, and for four years I've been the sole designer on it. Agency-level brand range, from inside one company.
CLIENT
ChicoBag
YEAR
2020-2026
DELIVERABLES
Photography Branding Motion Design
ROLE
Sole Visual Designer — Brand Adaptation & Production
The Problem
This program existed before me. Full dye sublimation means a design can run edge to edge, so the same tote or pouch can look completely different depending on whose logo and colors go on it — that's what makes custom work possible at this scale. I've been the one running it since 2020, working straight from whatever a client sends over: a logo, a style guide, sometimes just their website.
Most designers get one kind of range. An agency designer works across a lot of different brands but rarely stays with any of them long. A company designer knows one brand deeply but rarely touches anyone else's. I've had both — 7,617 outside brands, from inside one company, for four years. The skill isn't a system. It's reading what actually makes a brand itself, fast, and putting that onto a product without it looking bolted on.
Full dye sublimation means the print goes edge to edge — the product itself is a blank canvas. A tote for a national park and a tote for a food brand can be the exact same construction and look nothing alike. That's where the adaptation work actually shows up: not in the product, in what I put on it.
Kodiak Cakes needed custom-branded reusable products for a national trade show. I studied their brand directly from their website, developed mockups across four products, and delivered options ready for production. Their team approved with almost no revisions. "I really loved that I just had to have them look at our website and they came back with options — it was a big time-saver for our team to have ChicoBag lead the design." — Katie Speed, Field Marketing Manager, Kodiak Cakes "People loved the products — we heard a lot of comments from guests telling us your booth has a lot of swag; we came back to grab some more." — Katie Speed
The Problem
Section 3
Other projects
