Jankowski Design

I started my career as a packaging designer in Los Angeles at Southern California Carton Company designing primarily for the cosmetic and food industries. Products were diverse and ranged from skin-care systems to frozen pies. When I was senior art director at Danaher, I worked on packaging products for high-end medical equipment. I currently teach packaging design classes at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles and am a freelance graphic designer specializing in packaging, branding and logo creation.

I authored Shelf Life—Modern Package Design 1920-1945 as the first of a two-volume set that was published by Chronicle Books. I researched and wrote the content, designed the layout and art directed the photography. Most of the tins, labels and boxes were from 20+ years collecting vintage packaging from such renowned flea markets as the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and the Porta Portese in Rome.

The second book in this gallery is my UIC Master's thesis project: lovepuritypowermemory (tomato as metaphor). It deconstructs emotional and factual qualities of America's second most popular vegetable — the tomato. It lyrically explores in it's representation of text and visuals themes such as purity in food processing, genetic engineering, the memory of eating a grandmother's salsa, dinner with a loved one, canned label art from the 1920s, the etymology of tomato and more.   

The logos shown on this gallery page range from those created for high-tech dental and medical companies to a Long Beach restaurant. Included are logos for Kerr TotalCare and Axis|SybronEndo with applications shown for product lines, sales meetings and their respective company rebrandings.

Brochures featured in this gallery include two examples from the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, three medical/dental ones and one for the school district in Huntington Beach. Stylistically, the brochures use strong color and photography to communicate their messages. The brochure for Huntington Beach targets younger students (and their parents) and uses a more colorful palette and design.

Included in this gallery are spreads from Shape Magazine, a monthly women's fitness periodical and ZooLife, a magazine devoted to animal conservation efforts. I art directed both Los Angeles magazines, participating in editorial meetings, art directing photo shoots and designing layouts.

The first catalog shown is for SybronEndo, a manufacturer of high-tech dental instruments and equipment. Initially, this catalog was intended to be just a listing of product photos, descriptions and SKU's. I teamed up with the marketing manager to create a "magazine" that the sales reps could use to review the details of the products and therefore better sell to their customers. A combination of text, photos, illustrations, charts and diagrams give a depth to this catalog that was unusual in the industry.

The design of the second catalog is stylistically quite different from the first. Kerr TotalCare's clientele is almost exclusively woman, and as with the rebranding I created earlier, colors and shapes were kept pastel and soft. Three branded colors divide the content into product usage sections. This catalog was created solely for iPad use and I designed it to be user friendly for their sales reps. It has hyperlinks throughout that take you to specific products, chapters and to the company's website as well. 

This is portfolio shows examples of two branding projects, one for Kerr TotalCare and the other for Axis|SybronEndo.

Kerr TotalCare sells infection protection products to customers at dental offices, 95% of whom are women. The rebranding focused on retaining the company's signature blue and green colors, with some updating. The brand was kept "feminine" by using soft hues and curved lines, but avoided the use of pink as too stereotypical.

The managers at Axis|SybronEndo directed me to create a branded look that emphasized the high-tech, precision of their dental and medical instruments and equipment.

The advertising in this collection is for three companies that sell dental/medical instruments and equipment — Kerr, SybronEndo and Orascoptic. I functioned at these companies as creative director, both in concepting, writing and designing the ads or ad campaigns. Due to certain restrictions by the FDA, it is easier to suggest the qualities of the product — flexibility, craftsmanship and advanced technology — than to overly state them. Therefore, you will notice the prominent use of metaphors to convey the message.

Although once exclusively printed, the traditional annual report is probably found more often today on companies' websites. Whether printed or digital, the annual report not only enlightens stock holders as to the value and direction of their holdings, it also can be used as an effective sales tool. This is especially true for a nonprofit like the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. As Design Director, I art directed four of their annual reports. These reports highlighted the fun and cuddly, like newborns, and serious fund-raising capital campaigns. 

Ormco, a orthodontic company, relates it's charitable contributions in its annual report. This is the last annual report in this gallery.