What Building a Brand Taught Me About Design

From Designer to Founder to Designer

There’s a big difference between designing something that looks good and designing something that actually has to sell.

I’ve lived both sides.

I started my career working in design for brands like Martha Stewart, Xbox, PlayStation, and JP Morgan. It was a great foundation. I learned how to craft visuals, build systems, and create work that looked polished and professional.

But at the end of the day, I was still on the outside looking in.

Then I stepped into something very different.
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Becoming the Founder

I co-founded Pop Art Snacks and built it from the ground up.

Farmers markets.
Figuring out pricing.
Packaging decisions.
Retail conversations.
Margins.
Manufacturing.

All the things you don’t think about when you’re just designing.

Over time, we grew into national retail with placements in stores like Costco and Kroger.

And that’s where everything shifted for me.
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What Design Looks Like When It’s Your Money on the Line

When you’re the founder, design isn’t just about how something looks.

It’s about:

• Will this get picked up?
• Will this stand out next to everything else?
• Will this justify the price?
• Will this actually move off the shelf?

Every decision carries weight.

You start to realize quickly that a lot of design thinking doesn’t hold up in the real world.

Not because it’s bad.
But because it’s incomplete.
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What Most Designers Miss

A lot of design is created in a vacuum.

It looks great in a presentation.
It looks great on a screen.

But it hasn’t been tested against:

• crowded shelves
• distracted shoppers
• real buying behavior

That’s where things break down.

Because the goal isn’t just to make something look good.

The goal is to make something get chosen.
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Coming Back to Design with a Different Lens

After years of building and eventually stepping away from Pop Art Snacks, I came back to design with a completely different perspective.

Now, every project starts with a different set of questions:

• What makes this product worth grabbing?
• How does it win in a crowded category?
• What actually matters to the person buying it?

The work becomes less about decoration and more about decision-making.
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How We Approach It at Optical Pop Designs

At Optical Pop Designs, we don’t just think like designers.

We think like founders.

We understand the pressure of getting it right.
The importance of standing out.
And the reality that design has to perform, not just impress.

We act as designers, creative directors, and strategic partners, working with a talented group of designers to build brands that don’t just look good, but show up strong where it matters most.
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The Takeaway

Design changes when you’ve had to rely on it.

When you’ve sat on both sides, you stop chasing trends and start focusing on what actually works.

Because in the end, the brands that win aren’t the ones that look the best in a presentation.

They’re the ones people pick up without thinking twice.

If you’re building something and want it to stand out in the real world, that’s exactly what we focus on at Optical Pop Designs.

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