Skip to content
banner image demonstrating the McSweeney's brand with package and backgroun

Package Design to Video, and Everything In-between

We were hired in 2015 to develop a new packaging design system that would work in multiple sizes and formats for more than 30 SKUs. Over the next seven years we would build out everything the McSweeney’s brand needed to tell their story to the world. From packaging and sales collateral to social media posts and broadcast-ready ads, we told a consistently great story about how meat snacks fit into Canadian consumers lives. McSweeney’s continues on today as a leading Canadian brand with increasing growth and market share.

My Role

Art Direction

Design

Advertising

Copywriting

Video & Motion Graphics

Client/Project/Account Management

Agency: Rebox – A B2B Brand Distillery

Build the system, tell the Canadian Camaraderie story

To start, we leveraged high quality black and white images to highlight our Canadian Camaraderie theme. By combining those images with a bold colour palette and a neutral background, we were able to build out a design system that would work in all of the McSweeney’s package formats, from the best selling 80g jerky pouch to the super narrow 40g Pepperoni Single Stick vacuum pack. This system would allow us to be flexible for future package sizes that hadn’t been determined yet. It would also allow us to create sales and marketing materials that would effectively tell a consistent McSweeney’s story to consumers, distributors and brand and marketing partners.

image showing a selection of packages designed for the McSweeney's 80 gram jerky category
The McSweeney's 80g Jerky category. Colours differentiate flavours and are consistent across categories. The Original Beef Jerky here is updated for 2021.
An image showing the McSweeney's package design system on the 28g steak strip category
The McSweeney's package design system applied to the 28g Steak Strips category.
An image showing the McSweeney's package design system on the 40g pepperoni category
The McSweeney's package design system applied to the most narrow packaging, the 40g Pepperoni.
An image of some pages from the McSweeney's Brand Guide
No brand would be complete without a guide as to how to use it. It incorporated not only the Visual Identity parts but served as a primer for people on the essence of the McSweeney's Brand.
McSweeney's Summer '22 campaign promo sheet for distributors/retailers. I lost track of the number of promo and feature sheets I did for McSweeney's over seven years.
An image showing the McSweeney's package design system on the 150g Lil Peps Pepperoni category
The design system would be flexible enough to start to incorporate new products as they were developed.
The design system applied to the innovative jerky trail mix line. This is a personal favourite.
A branded two-colour ecomm shipping box, 2021. This is where we really started leveraging The Best of Canada in Every Piece, a campaign slogan I created in 2020.

Leverage the Brand for Different Channels and Spaces

Following the launch of the new packaging, we began developing marketing and sales collateral to help tell the McSweeney’s story. Sales and product info sheets were created to tell the Canadian Camaraderie story to distributors and retail partners, in-store point of sale pieces told consumers about the McSweeney’s brand, and we worked collaboratively with video partners to develop broadcast-quality video stories.

I lead ideation and story development for several videos and was on hand for The Jerky Wagon shoot (parental leave for the Road Trip shoot kept me off set, but the finished result drew heavily from my development work). Frequently we were asked to assist the McSweeney’s in-house team with social graphics for specific promotions and product launches.

The Jerky Wagon, 2015

The Official Meat Snacks of Canadian Road Trips, 2017

WHL Jerky Toss Social Media Motion Graphics, 2021

Smokin’ Jalapeño Launch Social Media Motion Graphics, 2022

Growth All Around

The package redesign and subsequent marketing efforts lead to the greatest period of growth that McSweeney’s has seen in both market share and real revenue. The marketplace continues to be driven by major players, but McSweeney’s has grown to be the top Canadian brand in the space.

Personally, working with the McSweeney’s brand afforded a lot of opportunities not just in the creative space, but in managing over 300 individual projects. With the start of the pandemic, I took on the role of account manager in addition to the creative work, working closely with the McSweeney’s team to grow their business.