In my last few months working in the Netherlands, before moving abroad, I was working hard on creating an all new brand for my employer. The new brand would focus on consumer electronics, bringing end-users a lot of smart techs.
THE BRAND
Nordväl offers a world of innovation and convenience to end-users. It was great to be working on this brand and to have a small part in the foundation of it.
Early 2020 the task came on my desk to help with setting up a new brand. We were working with a creative agency that helped us to set up the basic structure. I was heavily involved, having multiple meetings with the agency to make sure the result was in line with what we had in mind.
The brand has a Scandinavian look and feel as it gives a premium feeling. That said, the products were actually great quality. Trying them out was a lot of fun, especially as it was a big variety of different electronics.
Working with the design agency, we already established the general look and feel of the brand. This made it easy for me to work on the different materials.
DASHCAM
One of the first products I worked on was dashcams. My tasks for this (and the other products) were the manuals and box art. We already had experience working with dashcams in the past, but this was different as it was our own.
Working with the brand guidelines was great, it gave me a good foundation to start off with. Thankfully, I still had room for some creative thinking, as we weren’t fully convinced with all the choices made by the design agency. I worked on 3 different dashcam products and an accessory. I loved working on the boxes, as it was just amazing to see the stuff you work on in electronics stores on the shelf. We did have the freedom to design the icons used for the different features, which was cool.
Another part of the project was working on the manuals. This is a crucial part and super important to keep full focus on. Mistakes are very costly here, as we want to make sure that our end-users understand the product as good and easy as possible.
VIDEO DOORBELL
To keep in track with camera’s one of the next electronics I worked on were video doorbells. Box sizes were constantly changing, but in general we kept the same idea going for what we did with the dashcams. Once again I worked here on the box and manuals, but especially the box was a lot of fun, as the size and way of folding was so different compared to the dashcams.
SMARTWATCH
My personal favourite project to work on was the smartwatches. I always love watches, but although I’m generally more of an old-school watch guy, it was fun to play around with the smartwatches and seeing what the fuss is about. I honestly think these boxes were the easiest for me to design. We had just enough to say about them with the features and the small box to make it interesting.
The manual was a fun one as well. As the box was so tiny, we had to figure out the ideal size for the manual. It was important that it was still readable and fit in the box. We had two different smartwatches and like I said, it was so much fun to work on these.
Nordväl SW101 Quick Start Guide with 3MM Bleeds
SECURITY BOX
Last but not least, I was working on the security box. This was a mixture of products that would make the life of our end-users safer and better. Especially their homes with smart-tech electronics.
MY TIME WAS OVER
Unfortunately, that was the end of my adventure with this amazing start up brand. You might wonder why I left, as there is still so much to design. We didn’t touch the website yet, nor a lot of the promotional materials. However, my girlfriend is calling, and I’m moving abroad to spend the rest of my life with her.
So yeah, it is sad that the project ended before it was actually finished, but I’m proud of my contributions, and it will be great seeing the electronics brand succeed in the future.
See my full portfolio here.
