** This article was originally published in the Illawarra Mercury on May 22 2018. Story and photography by Greg Ellis.
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Innovators: Rooland and RooCreate’s Corey McGuigan, Lisa Diebold, Jessica Fosler, Suzanne Haddon, Renee Pyers and Alix Tennison next to surfboard art by Zac Bennett-Brook of Saltwater Dreamtime. Picture: Greg Ellis.
A Wollongong businesswoman who has worked on branding for some of the biggest companies in the world before moving to Australia is launching a second arm of her business on Wednesday.
Suzanne Haddon runs a branding firm called Rooland that works for clients far and wide doing everything from graphics to illustration.
But she is also highly experienced in packaging for major brands around the globe and has come up with an innovative idea that can streamline the process for many other businesses.
RooCreate is focused on smart, simple, sustainable packaging that can be adopted easily and quickly to support a brand and image with an more affordable, professional, environmentally friendly look.
“We have always been sustainable and environmental. I love packaging and I wanted to create an App or some kind of online platform where people can go an get really innovative package design and packaging you can’t find anywhere else. One of the hard things about packaging is that it is really hard to source and find the right suppliers and get a great price and great design,” Mrs Haddon said.
The structure, look, feel and everything that goes into a package is what RooCreate works on. Mrs Haddon said packaging is becoming very innovative and can be made out of many different materials.
“Knowing what the correct material is for the client and making it work is what we do. I went to school in packaging/design in Los Angeles and I studied the structure, form and how to construct a package properly and add the graphics and everything,” she said.
“From there I wanted to create something for people who have a product and are very interested in environmental materials to be able to go online and buy direct without having to come to an office and meet with someone. I am just trying to streamline the process and make it simple and affordable.”
Creative business: The Rooland and RooCreate team outside the iAccelerate building on the University of Wollongong Innovation Campus. Picture: Greg Ellis.
From 25 years experience in branding and packaging one of the things Mrs Haddon has observed is one of the biggest expenses is the meeting time.
“I thought if we can cut out some of the parts that cost the most money and get a client the best design, the best package and the best material in one place it is a going to be a win-win situation. My passion is the best possible design work and creation of these packages for our clients anywhere in the world”.
Mrs Haddon said in the process she wanted to be 100 per cent sustainable. RooCreate doesn’t want to use anything that cannot be recycled.
“There are a lot of materials out there that are fantastic that we want to explore and push and expand on. We have now eight products online. It can go huge. We can design our own custom shapes. People can then choose a package they like and have it refined to the size they want.”
RooCreate is about streamlining the process to give businesses a big head start in their decision making.
There is an online brief they can fill out which quickly gives her team a good understanding of what is being sought. From that a more detailed brief is created and sent off to the designer. That is followed by an opportunity to be able to see the design in 3D as part of a streamlined digital creative process.
“We have developed the online platform,” Mrs Haddon said.
“Now we are developing a workspace where you can go online and see the designs we have created or you can add your own designs and actually visually see it on you desk. RooCreate is an online platform. We developed it here at iAccelerate. The reason we moved into iAccelerate two years ago was to expand on this idea.”
During the last two years the Rooland team has grown from two to six. Originally Mrs Haddon and one other designer were working from her home in the northern suburbs after she relocated from the Whitsundays where she lived for four years and worked on her own for clients in America. She moved to Wollongong because she loved surfing and the beach. And brought with her 25 years experience as a designer. That followed six years studying packaging, design and branding at prestigious schools in the United States.
After graduating Mrs Haddon quickly found herself working on the product packaging for some of the big brands in the cosmetic industry. She was then headhunted to work for companies such as Nordstrom, Nike and then Starbucks for six years.
“I loved working at Starbucks. I went from being the senior designer to being a design director. I was one of the lead designers on the whole team of over 40 designers. We developed the new store experience. I was the head of the team developing the in-store experience. Every package that went in store and all the graphics. We created the look and feel of every store going forward. After we accomplished that I started designing for the international stores. Starbucks in each country had a different look and feel appropriate to their culture”.