Location: North Canton, Ohio
Brief: Working as an Industrial Design Intern under the guidance of Maria Necessary
Introduction
Starting in May 2022 (junior year of college to present), I've had the opportunity to work as an Industrial Design Intern for Necessary Design, LLC.
Necessary Design is an award winning graphic design and marketing studio helping individuals and businesses manage and grow their brand. Their creative team holds a shared value of delivering to their clients the finest service, support and finished product. They consider each project a privilege regardless of size because they're here to create.
Most of my projects have been for a scented ornaments company called Scentsicles. Created in 2005, the Scentsicles brand enjoys an unrivaled position as the pioneer of scented ornaments designed to make Christmas trees smell fresh cut. Scentsicles has grown from a unique Christmas idea to a global seasonal brand, and is now a subsidiary of the National Tree Company, the leading US wholesaler of artificial Christmas tree, wreaths, garland, and other seasonal décor.
I helped with their rebranding, packaging redesign, and social media, among other projects, most in the production phase. Check out some of my favorite finished projects!
Scentsicles Brand Redesign
After Scentsicles was acquired by the National Tree Company, Necessary Design was tasked with a complete brand redesign for Scentsicles. This redesign's main focus was to associate a sense of wonder and magic with the Scentsicles brand, evoking feelings of nostalgia and excitement to its consumers.
I attended many meetings in which I aided in brainstorming new taglines, packaging layouts, developing the final look, and ideating new ways to encourage consumer engagement with the new branding. I also compiled stock photos for various projects and helped create the new brand guide.
I spent a lot of my time researching and developing several new displays for the 2024 Scentsicles season. I sketched various displays in Procreate to help the team visualize several possibilities for what the 2024 displays might look like. These sketches were used to help develop the final displays.
Much of my preliminary research for the Scentsicles brand redesign will be released with the new branding in 2024. Stay tuned!
Scentsicles Packaging Illustrations
In redesigning the Scentsicles products packaging, I was tasked with creating several usage illustrations to help users understand the multiple uses of the various Scentsicles products. Official product packaging will be released in 2024. Drawn in Procreate.
For the Scentsicles Sticks:
For the Scentsicles Mister:
For the Scentsicles ScentFetti:
For the Scentsicles Star Ornament:
Scentsicles Business Cards
With a new brand redesign comes new business cards. Scentsicles is introducing several new scents in 2024, and I thought it might be fun to create several business cards for each salesperson to advertise each of these scents. See the preliminary development for the cards below (we chose to pursue the vertical cards in the top row). Official cards to be released in 2024.
Scentsicles Teams Backgrounds
As with the business cards, a new brand redesign requires new virtual backgrounds. I wanted the salespeople to be able to advertise their favorite scents, and created several backgrounds advertising each of the options, using the original artwork from the packaging files.
Scentsicles Icons
The Scentsicles website is preparing to update with the launch of the 2024 season. I created several usage icons in Adobe Illustrator to help visualize product instructions.
Scentsicles Social Media Posts
I helped develop several social media posts for Scentsicles, mainly for Instagram and Facebook. Because these posts were a highly collaborative project, we utilized Canva Pro in creating these posts, developing templates and building posts. A few of my favorites are below:
Product Review Templates:
International Cat Day (featuring my cats):
International Book Lover's Day:
Introducing Spiced Pine Cones Scent (animated in Procreate):
Lessons Learned:
Working with Necessary Design has taught me so much! I've really grown as a designer during my time here. Through this internship, I've been able to be a part of several production processes for various projects, both for Scentsicles and other companies. I've learned to experiment with new softwares and techniques with little fear, as well as gain experience working in a highly driven creative environment.
"How many times do I have to teach you? Just because
something works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved."
something works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved."
- Shuri, Black Panther
