Rick Fitzgerald has spent decades making the kind of packaging people actually keep.

Rick grew up in the woods outside Charlottesville, Virginia, building his own little worlds out of whatever he could find. After VCU he fell into packaging by chance, at a global packaging company in Newport News. His three-person in-house team was concepting special editions for just about every major studio, label and brand you can think of. He ran that creative group for 15 years, then ran creative for another eight in LA.

We get into the stories behind some of that work: the 2013 Avengers Tesseract collector’s case (and the lawsuit that sent it back for retooling), Watch the Throne, and working directly with Brian Wilson on the SMiLE box set, which Rick calls the top memory of his career.

Also in this episode:

• A drawing from Rick’s childhood sketchbook that’s about to become a painting
• Kirk’s Transformers pitch to Hasbro (and the triple changers that showed up a year later)
• Picking illustration back up after years of fear, and how long it took to get there
• Why packaging is still underappreciated AND underutilized, from QR codes to product education
• Designing for the “third shelf” when AI agents are doing the shopping
• Unboxings, collectors, and balancing a big impact with a smaller footprint
• Rick’s shift toward fine art, and his push to get kids in Denver into art and design

Come for the special edition war stories, stay for Rick’s advice on keeping fear at bay and never stopping exploring.

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About Kirk and Andy.

Kirk Visola is the Creative Director and Founder of MIND THE FONT™. He brings over 20 years of CPG experience to the packaging and branding design space, and understands how shelf aesthetics can make an impact for established and emerging brands. Check out their work http://www.mindthefont.com.

Andy Kurts is the Creative Director and Founder of Buttermilk Creative. He loves a good coffee in the morning and a good bourbon at night. When he’s not working on packaging design he’s running in the backyard with his family. Check out Buttermilk's work http://www.buttermilkcreative.com.

Music for Kirk & Kurtts intro & outro: Better by Super Fantastics

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