Premium Packaging Designer for Character & Collectible Toy Brand

We are developing a new premium character-led collectible/lifestyle brand and are looking for a talented packaging designer with strong experience in modern branding, packaging systems, and consumer products. The character itself has a soft, charming personality, but we want the overall packaging identity to feel modern, distinctive, premium, and collectible — not overly childish or generic “cute” packaging. We are particularly interested in designers who can balance emotional character storytelling with sophisticated art direction, typography, color, composition, and contemporary graphic design. Phase 1 — Creative Exploration ($300 fixed price) For the initial phase, we will provide one hero character, brand direction, visual references, packaging requirements, and available dieline/specifications. We would like the selected designer to develop 3 distinctly different creative directions for one hero package, exploring possibilities such as: * Clean, modern, premium collectible * Contemporary art / bold graphic direction * Modern storybook / artistic direction These are starting points rather than strict formulas. We welcome original creative thinking and would like the designer to bring their own point of view. Phase 1 Deliverables: * 3 clearly differentiated packaging concepts for one hero product * Primary/front-facing package design for each direction * Simple 3D mockup of each concept * Proposed typography, color and graphic language * Brief rationale for each creative direction This phase is focused on creative concept development, not final production-ready artwork. Potential Follow-On Work This project is intended to continue through two additional paid phases if Phase 1 is successful: Phase 2: Refine the selected direction and develop the complete package across all panels, including revisions, production-ready artwork/dieline, source files and final mockups. Phase 3: Extend the approved packaging system to additional characters/SKUs and establish basic packaging design guidelines for future products. Our goal is to find a designer who can potentially become a long-term creative partner as the character collection and product line expand. What We're Looking For Strong portfolios in premium consumer packaging, collectibles, toys, beauty, lifestyle, fashion or modern CPG are especially relevant. Character-product experience is helpful but not required. We care deeply about taste, originality, typography and brand-system thinking. We are not looking for generic templates or direct copies of reference designs. Please include 2–3 examples of packaging/brand projects most relevant to this assignment, ideally showing how a visual identity was translated across packaging or multiple SKUs. Confidentiality / NDA This project involves an unreleased original character and intellectual property. The selected designer will be required to sign an NDA before receiving confidential character artwork, detailed brand materials, product-development information, and other proprietary assets. All provided materials are confidential and may not be shared, published, used in portfolios, posted on social media, or disclosed to third parties without prior written permission.