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Design guides
Short, practical notes on getting more out of free resources, written from ten years of real client work in branding and packaging.
Designing a Matcha Brand: Lessons From Real Projects
What I have learned designing matcha and Japanese café brands: colour, type, tins versus pouches, and how to present the packaging so owners say yes.
Realistic Photo Mockups vs AI Mockups for Packaging
When an AI-generated packaging mockup is good enough and when a photo-based PSD still wins, from a designer who makes both.
How to Use a PSD Mockup Without Blurry Results
A packaging designer's walkthrough of smart objects in PSD mockups, plus fixes for the five problems that make a design look blurry, stretched or fake.
Can You Use Free Mockups for Client Work? Licences Explained
Personal, commercial, standard, extended: what free and paid mockup licences actually allow, written by a mockup maker who answers these questions every week.
Why I Started Making Packaging Mockups for Asian Brands
Asian packaging formats like slim cans, matcha tins and drip bags were hard to find as good mockups. So I started shooting my own, and it became Mockup Asia.