Product Development

GreenBox developed products and exclusive artwork for clients such as Target, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, The Land of Nod (now Crate & Kids), LL Bean, the San Diego Zoo, Anthropologie, Francesca's, Walmart, and Barnes & Noble. 

Client collaborations varied depending on the project. Sometimes the client provided existing artwork, and I would adapt it to fit different products, as I did with the San Diego Zoo product line (shown above). Other times, a client would be drawn to an existing piece within our line and request exclusivity, ask for changes, or have us build out an entire collection based on that single piece. My favorite projects were the ones where we got to develop brand new art pieces specifically for the client, from concept through completion. 

At GreenBox, I helped develop hundreds of art pieces for The Land of Nod, the kids' decor branch of Crate & Barrel (now rebranded as Crate & Kids). Working from mood boards the Land of Nod team sent for upcoming collections, I identified and suggested artwork and artists whose style fit the collection's direction. When our existing roster didn't have enough matches, I researched and sourced new artists, then with my creative director's approval, reached out to bring them onto the project. I especially loved these projects because I got to collaborate directly with artists on developing new, on-brand pieces from scratch.

I also served as the main point of contact connecting the artists, my creative director, and the Land of Nod team, keeping communication and approvals moving across all three groups. On the production side, I built nearly all of the production files for these items and owned quality control before delivery, including designing a thorough QA process to make sure every bulk print run matched the approved sample exactly.

Each new Land of Nod collection also included personalized product lines: placemats, ornaments, night lights, wall decals, lamp shades, and growth charts. Some were designed to match that season's collection, and others were built around current decor trends. I worked with artists to develop artwork from plans we created in-house, reviewing their work and offering suggestions before presenting it to my creative director. We typically pitched around 100-200 items each season and moved forward with 30-60. Beyond the creative direction, I managed the artists' timelines, making sure they knew what they were working on and stayed on track for delivery.

Once artwork was approved, I built the personalized variations and created the automated personalization templates using Fusion Pro. This mattered most during the holidays, when we personalized tens of thousands of ornament orders, with each print file checked manually before going to production.

We worked with artists to create specific collections for different times of the season. The Springtime Friends collection, shown below was created by the incredible Cathy Walters. Cathy would create the initial artwork and we use those pieces to create additional gift products, like the floor mat shown below. 

Complex color selection and manual clipping paths/selections were created in Photoshop to create additional colorways, personalized versions and alternate product types of best selling artworks like Cherry Blossom Birdies, shown above. The additional colorways were created to work with top selling childrens decor trends to maximize selling potential.  Artwork was always manipulated with artist approval of the final product. Cherry Blossom Birdies original (blue) and all GreenBox created variations are copyright Megan & Mindy Winborg.