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About
Brett Shipley, industrial designer
Open for projects
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36+
Projects completed
8
Years in practice
LA
California
E2E
Concept to production
Industrial and packaging designer based in California. I work across the full product arc: concept, 3D development, material specification, and production coordination. Home goods, lighting, beauty, and CPG are where most of my work lands, though the category matters less than whether the problem is worth solving.
I stay in the file. From the first sketch through production approval, I'm in the details. That's not a constraint — it's where good design actually happens.
Specialties
  • Concept design and 3D form development
  • Design for manufacturing and production-ready CAD
  • Packaging structure and graphic direction
  • Material and finish specification
  • Sourcing, manufacturer vetting, and sample approval
  • Self-initiated product series
Categories
Home Goods Lighting Beauty CPG Baby Accessories Furniture Concept
Services
01
Concept Design
Physical products from brief to resolved form. Sketching through 3D, surface development, proportioning, and CMF direction. Covers everything from the first rough idea to a design that's ready to engineer.
Research + brief Sketch development 3D concept modeling Surface development CMF direction Design presentation
02
Design for Manufacturing
Production-intent CAD, tolerancing, and engineering drawings. Includes material and finish specification and all files needed to get a product into a factory. No gaps between design and what gets built.
Production CAD Tolerancing Engineering drawings Material + finish spec Production-ready files Vendor documentation
03
Packaging Design
Structure and graphic direction, separately or together. Single SKU through full system rollout. Built for beauty, CPG, food, and baby — categories where the package is part of the product.
Structural dielines Graphic design direction Print production SKU system design Production spec Manufacturer coordination
04
Sourcing & Product Development
Manufacturer vetting, factory communication, sample review, and production approval. I've been through this enough times to know what to check, what to push back on, and where standards slip if no one's watching.
Manufacturer vetting Factory communication Sample review Production approval Quality documentation
Process
01
Discovery
1–2 weeks
Research and Brief
Category study, competitive audit, user and retail context. I map what already exists before touching a pencil, because the gap worth designing into is usually different from the gap the brief describes. Ends with a sharpened problem statement and a set of constraints I'll hold myself to.
02
Concepting
2–3 weeks
Sketch and Explore
Sketching through rough 3D to generate a genuine range of directions — not one idea dressed differently. Multiple lanes: a safe read, a strong read, and one that would be genuinely surprising. I push until concepts look different from each other.
Add-On
03
Development
3–6 weeks
3D Modeling & Engineering
Production-intent CAD, material and finish specification, tolerancing, and manufacturing drawings. I stay in the file until the geometry is right, not just until it renders well. Every surface, every junction, every radius is a deliberate decision.
Add-On
04
Production
2–4 weeks
Sampling & Approval
Manufacturer communication, sample review, and refinement through production approval. What happens between CAD and the first run is where most projects lose quality. My job isn't done when the files are sent — it's done when the product in the box matches what was designed.
Packaging
Projects follow a similar arc: brief, structural exploration, dieline development, graphic direction, and print production coordination.
Contact
Open for projects
Open for project work, ongoing engagements, and licensing conversations. Let's ship.
Location
California
Meetings
Remote and in-person meetings available locally
Response time
Within one business day