Expertise
We go deep.
We don’t try to be all things to all brands. Instead, we go deep, into the category, the consumer, and the craft. That depth is evident in the results we deliver.
Every project combines art, technology, and craft, assembled uniquely for each brief and executed with exacting care.
Advisory
Aligning vision with market viability.
Four decades of brand and packaging experience, applied to the decisions in front of you. For brands at an inflection point. When something has shifted, or needs to. Some brands need a thinking partner before they need a designer. We work with founders and brand leaders to challenge assumptions, bring commercial perspective and establish clarity around the decisions that follow. From what needs to change and what should remain, to what will work on shelf, in production and at scale.
The Brand Read™
An independent perspective on where a brand stands, what continues to hold value and where the opportunity for change lies.
The Brand Read™ brings together brand, packaging, category understanding and commercial judgement to identify what matters most.
Undertaken as a comprehensive review or focused on a particular challenge, its scope is determined by the decisions that need to be made.
D2C → Retail Readiness
Understanding what needs to evolve as a brand moves into retail, balancing existing brand equity with category expectations, competitive positioning and shelf performance.
Range & Portfolio Architecture
Establishing clarity across growing or changing portfolios. From product hierarchy and range navigation to the relationships between brands, sub-brands and individual products.
Production Readiness
A beautiful mockup can be misleading. What reads perfectly in a render, from the finish and structure to the choice of materials, may prove technically challenging, commercially unviable or unsuitable for production at scale.
We bring practical manufacturing and print expertise into the decision-making process, assessing substrate compatibility, structural integrity, production methods, finishes and commercial feasibility. Understanding these considerations early can protect the integrity of the design, avoid costly compromises and ensure that creative ambition can be realised in production.
Creative Direction
Independent creative judgement at points of uncertainty or change. Evaluating existing directions, challenging assumptions and helping teams establish a clear and considered way forward.
Brand Development
Bring us your dream
We give it a soul. A holistic approach to visual storytelling for new ventures and evolving icons. For founders seeking a deeper narrative beyond surface-level aesthetics. Working from the foundations up, we develop your brand articulation, defining your vision, positioning, proposition, and values. We then craft your narrative through naming, storytelling, and tone of voice, bringing it to life through visual identity, unique brand assets, and design language.
Strategy + Positioning
Great brands begin with a clear understanding of where they sit in the world and why it matters. We work through discovery and strategy to establish the pillars your brand will be built on.
Storytelling + Tone of Voice
Words shape perception. We craft the narrative architecture of your brand: the story, language, tone, and voice that carry it consistently across every channel.
Brand Naming
A name must work across linguistic, cultural, and commercial dimensions simultaneously. We generate, stress-test, and refine options against category conventions, trademark considerations, and commercial fit.
Depot Tip: The right name sets your brand up for clarity, memorability, and market advantage.
Visual Identity
From logomark to full design language, we create visual identity systems. Distinctive, flexible, and deeply considered, expressing the essence of a brand with clarity and confidence across print, digital, packaging, and environmental applications.
Brand Guidelines
We produce guidelines that empower your team, agencies, and partners to implement the brand consistently.
Illustration & Pattern Design
Visual language for brand ecosystems and physical form.
Developing versatile illustration styles, original IP, and repeat patterns for licensing across textiles, homewares, and brand environments.
Brand Illustration
We develop illustration styles that belong entirely to you, usable across scale, substrate, and context.
Repeat Pattern Design
Patterns are built for production, not just presentation. Seamless repeats, block repeats, engineered placements, developed across scales and colourways.
Licensing Existing Library
We license the library of illustrations we have already created, giving brands access to a rich asset pool while ensuring consistent application across touchpoints.
Original IP
We develop original illustration IP with standalone commercial potential: pattern collections, and illustrative worlds designed to travel across products.
Textile + Surface Design
From fashion to interiors, the work is made to be made. No surprises when it reaches the mill or printer.
Material Selection
Responsible choices, tactile results.
Material is message. The weight of a board, the warmth of an uncoated stock. We make sure those signals are deliberate.
Substrate Sourcing + Specification
We source and specify across paper, board, glass, metal, and textile, ensuring the right choice for application, print process, and brand values.
Sustainable Materials Consultancy
We help brands cut through sustainability noise, supply chain provenance, and environmental impact. From FSC-certified board to compostable films and recycled content, we find what genuinely works.
Depot Tip: Early material decisions avoid late-stage changes and unexpected costs.
Finish + Embellishment Direction
We specify and direct foiling, embossing, debossing, UV spot and textured varnishes, ensuring hand feel and look are carefully considered.
Material Feasibility + Cost Analysis
We assess options against production volumes, lead times, tooling requirements, and unit costs, ensuring realistic outcomes.
Packaging Design
More than a pretty package.
Where structural innovation meets sensory impact. Engineering cohesive design systems for a definitive physical presence. For brands requiring structural integrity and a unified presence across complex SKU lists.
Structural Design
We create bespoke solutions or adapt existing forms according to client needs and budgets. Form and function are considered together.
Cardboard Engineering + Knifeline Creation
We minimise materials and create production efficiencies. Knifeline rationalisation can reduce material waste, improve freight costs, and streamline storage. Every detail is production ready.
Depot Tip: Structural improvements often deliver the most significant cost savings across a range.
Packaging Comms
The pack surface is one of your most powerful communications channels. We develop the messaging hierarchy, claims language, and information architecture that turns packaging into a
persuasive tool.
Product Sourcing & Production
The path to perfection.
Bridging the gap between design and reality through production oversight, and BOM development. We manage complex projects, liaise with manufacturers, and ensure seamless delivery.
Print Procurement
We assist to procure print and production from our selected partners, streamlining processes for cost and efficiency, and provide a procurement rulebook to support brand growth.
Depot Tip: A clear procurement rulebook ensures consistency and value as you scale.
Art Direction + Photography
We assemble and guide creative teams, stylists, cooks, digital techs, location teams, and photographers to produce assets that work across all channels without duplication.
Artwork
We produce unique knifelines and print-ready artwork with accuracy and consistency, optimising production and avoiding costly corrections.
3D Digital Renders
Photo-realistic 3D renders allow marketing, pitching, and pre-launch campaigns before the physical product exists.
Print Management
We apply our print knowledge with select suppliers to ensure work leaves the studio exactly as intended without clients needing to manage the process themselves.
Our sustainability
design principles
To ensure your brand and its packaging have a positive outcome for our future planet and the people, we work with three key principles. They guide everything we do, from thinking and creating to material sourcing, manufacturing and end of life, and we use them as a measure of success at the end of every project. They also set the standard of how we do things at Depot, reflected in our processes and behaviors.
“If nature is sustainable and beautiful, why can’t we make things that are sustainable and beautiful?”
Regardless of where you are on your sustainable journey, we can assist you with making packaging choices using our principals checklist based on the above.
Our awards
We value our peers’ opinions and enjoy submitting our work for design awards. They’re more than “nice to have.” They mean that our work is consistently ranking among the very best in consumer packaging.