Guacamole Airplane

With both heavy hearts and relief we’d like to share that we’ll be closing down Guacamole Airplane at the end of July. A design consultancy is a tough business model, one we never quite mastered. To fellow small business & agency owners, We have tremendous respect for those who came before us and those who will come after. The list of thank you’s is long, but most importantly we’d like to thank our staff who kept this studio alive and humming over the last six years : Tom Kochtitzky, Marisa Sanchez Dunning, Claire Weigand, Tasha Westbrook, Amy Murphy, Adam Blish, Josephine Tov, Lauren Nipper, Gabby Kim, Joanne Chu, Olivia Whitener, Katelan Cunningham, Mary Lempres, Zach Mosher, Maeli Martin, and Chloe Pavlovich. 6 years rocking was no small feat, and we feel incredibly lucky to have worked on some amazing projects. A few come to mind are * algae ink packaging with Nike  * massive plastic reduction efforts with brands like Dell, Whole Foods Market, and Balsam Hill * giving form to seaweed packaging with Flamingo Estate, EcoEnclose, and Sway.  * creating beautiful high-touch user experiences with Hammerheads Karoo 2 and Karoo 3 packaging * some super secret super dope work launching for Harrys soon * and creating an open source sustainable packaging supplier guide that became an industry standard And to anyone reading this, thanks for following along. It certainly won’t be the end of this type of sustainable design work for myself or our team, just hopping off the horse for a quick drink and a survey before charting a new course. Onwards and into the mist! -Ian

Our studio lead Ian Montgomery was named as one of the Graphic Design USA 2024 People to Watch. Thanks GDUSA Magazine and Mohawk for highlighting our studio and work. https://lnkd.in/gwNWnd9x

Exhibition design for the Sustainability Lounge at Westpack 2024 Last summer the team at Informa approached us about putting together a central hub to foster connection and conversations around sustainability at their annual Westpack Conference. We designed the space to celebrate this incredible era of material innovation we’re living in. 25 best-in-class material suppliers were highlighted across films, foams, resins, and paperstocks. Really juicy questions like “What are the right and wrong uses of compostable materials?” and “How do we prioritize minimizing carbon footprint vs “mining litter are being asked by everyone in the packaging community right now, we wanted to provide an approachable and interesting experience that inspires attendees and gives context to these larger questions about sustainability. The exhibition panels and furniture were constructed using a mix of mycelium, corrugated cardboard, and papers made with agricultural and clothing waste. Over the course of 3 days we hosted over 1000 people in the lounge, and we’re excited to follow up as the seeds of many conversations in the space grow into new designs and initiatives. A fun project for us, as the scale of 1200 sq feet was pretty different than the typical packaging we work on, but an avenue we look forward to continuing. #imewest2024 Informa Markets

Come one, come all! This weds the 21st Lauren Golik and Guacamole Airplane are hosting a meet up for Bay Area packaging designers. We hope to see you there! https://lnkd.in/g7b3w957

Some fun work in progress shots for Westpack 2024 in Anaheim Feb 6 - 8. For the show Guacamole Airplane was asked by Westpack to design and fabricate a 1200 square ft “Sustainability Lounge” space complete with furniture, exhibition panels, and three days of interactive demos. All components (designed to be reused for future events!) are either paper or made from home-compostable mycelium. Link to register below. It's free to attend the main show, hilariously next door to Disneyland, and will be a great event for anyone with any level of involvement in the packaging world. Hope to see you there! https://lnkd.in/gu4Ur6rj #IMEWest2024 #WestPack2024 Informa Markets