Ruttle Design Group

We’ve all seen the classic Halloween haunts: pumpkins, ghosts, witches and other familiar ghouls. But this year, we have a fresh take on iconic frights for our next brand packaging pitch, thanks to the artists with developmental disabilities at Visionaries + Voices. We partnered with the organization and its artists as early in the process as possible, and used these ideas as a springboard for concepts we could never have developed on our own– pushing into more fresh idea spaces than we would have reached with the usual resources like Pinterest, Instagram and AI.   The productivity was mind-blowing. Over 84 original Halloween-themed illustrations in an initial one-hour session alone. Our team left V+V's Northside studio with 5 executable concepts in only 60 minutes of rapid ideation, which continued to take shape over the course of a week. The result? Halloween icons reimagined like never before, uniquely created for use with specialty inks on a popular brand's packaging for a proposed limited edition offering. Ever seen wiggly ghosts with ears? Now you have–plus skeletons dancing the robot, a vibrant tree of ghouls and more.    On Monday, we presented our progress to an audience at AIGA Cincinnati’s Design Week. This year’s theme is Design for Good, so inclusive innovation was the perfect fit.   Design and project lead (and Cog partner) Lindsey Frimming and her designers, Lisa Ballard and Mackie Herrlinger, shared their experiences as they presented the designs. Lindsey said of the collaboration, “I was humbled. I learned so much from these artists about jumping in without overthinking and just…creating.”    Our audience also got the unique pleasure of meeting the artists: Curtis Davis, Neil Dignan, and Cathrine Whited, as well as V+V Creative Director, Lizzy DuQuette, and Marketing Strategist, Courtney Combs-Mock. A special thanks goes out to Trina Olsen and Qiana Graham at our co-sponsor Ruttle Design Group and Ashton Spann, UXC with AIGA Cincinnati for creating a platform with which to highlight these artists as the talent-rich professionals they truly are.

Coming up:  AIGA Cincinnati Design Week is only a few days away. This year's theme is DESIGN FOR GOOD, and we're proud to host a session called DISRUPTING DESIGN NORMS WITH VISIONARIES + VOICES ARTISTS alongside our co-sponsors, Ruttle Design Group. To showcase what it’s like collaborating with Visionaries + Voices artists with disabilities, we’re ideating together on a billable client project and then presenting our experiences (and work) to an audience– you! Sign up for the session here: https://lu.ma/9q6gcse7

Feast your eyes on our latest package design for the Align brand—delightfully delicious yogurt coated fruit bites! Since this new form of probiotics introduced the brand into the snack category, we needed to create strong appetite appeal balanced with healthy activation cues of the probiotics. We achieved this through indulgent photography of fresh fruit enveloped in swirls of creamy yogurt, layered with accents of the activated graphic pattern. Thanks to our local partners for collaborating with us on bringing these visuals to life. #ronhamiltonphoto #mertzdesignstudio #ruttledesigngroup #ruttledesigngroupcincy #align #alignyougurtfruitbites #probiotic #branding #packagedesign