Recently, I was working at my desk and received a message on LinkedIn from one of my connections, with a subject line of “Freelance Gig Call Me ASAP”.  Needless to say, he had my attention.  I promptly messaged him back to see what he needed.  Before I knew it, I was on my way to their shop to 3D model some package designs for one of their products.  In less than a 2-hour timeframe, I went from barely even knowing about this company, to having them entrust me with a tight-deadline piece of work that they wanted ready to go ASAP.  A few days later, I had completed the work and all went well.  The experience as a whole was a little surreal to me, not due to the fast-paced nature of the job (gosh, I work in POP. The norm is fast-paced.), just because of how the opportunity came together.  I haven’t done any marketing for package design opportunities, and I certainly don’t have a significant portfolio, or resume in the industry (despite the fact that I’d love to have one!) but the opportunity came to me regardless.  It found me because of good ol’ fashioned networking.  I knew a guy who knew a guy who needed a thing that the guy I knew believed I could do. (Say that 5 times fast ^_^).

Up until this opportunity, all of my prospective client meetings have been more like a traditional interview (in fact, one even had me fill out a traditional application!).  I walk in, show my portfolio, talk about my services, and if they have any immediate needs we go over it at that point.  This opportunity was different.  I walked in, shook everyone’s hands, told them my name, and we got right to discussing the task at-hand.  There was no handing off my resume, and no showing my portfolio.  They believed I could do the job, because someone they knew and trusted said I could.  I liked that.

The product, while I can’t tell you specifically what it was, I can tell you that it featured a lot of curves, and complicated shapes that made creating a package a unique challenge for me.  The package style was one of those vacuum-formed clear plastic casings that match the curve of the product and hold it perfectly in-place. (You know…those ones that you have to get scissors, hand shears, a torch, and a can opener to open?).  It was effectively one of my first forays into surface modeling using SolidWorks. Luckily, I already had some experience with this method of modeling from messing with it in some rare circumstances in the past, but there was still definitely a bit of a learning curve before I got it right.  I modeled each of the 3 concepts they wanted, and sent them the files that they needed from each 1 day ahead of schedule (I only had 4 days, after all.).

I really enjoyed working with surface modeling, package design, and really hope to get more opportunities like that in the future.