Tobias Pettersson

Earlier internal graphic support, 2004–2006.

Long-standing consultancy relationship across packaging, product communication, sustainability, technical explanation and film.

A substantial part of the work begins with a commercial opportunity or an open brief. I research the context, develop possible directions and make them tangible through packaging designs, illustrations, mock-ups and presentation material. This supports customer discussions, product exploration and internal decision-making.

The work spans original concepts, range development, adaptations within existing brands, consumer instructions, shelf and display visualisation, food imagery, 3D presentation and print-ready artwork.

Selected areas include:

• Packaging concepts and customer development: translating product opportunities and unfamiliar packaging formats into coherent propositions customers can see, understand and evaluate.
• Kids’ Play / Anuga: developing pop-up packaging concepts that use the carton’s opening construction as part of the storytelling, turning a functional action into play, curiosity and surprise.
• FSC implementation: contributing to the adaptation of graphical guidance for packaging constraints, including limited space and printing requirements, followed by implementation across international markets.
• Consumer and technical communication: visualising package properties, material layers, opening instructions and product systems.
• Early-stage innovation support: contributing concepts, design and mock-up development while products and communication needs were still being defined.

A little film about recycling / Carton Karma

Creative Lead & Project Lead · 2011

Developed and led a character-driven film project explaining carton recycling through story, humour and physical puppetry.

My contribution covered the communication concept, story and script development, visual direction and creative leadership through production. The project involved approximately fifteen collaborators over three months, spanning character design, puppet making, props, voices, filming, animation, sound and post-production.

The character universe subsequently developed into two further films, with continued responsibility for story development, production planning, coordination and delivery.

Broad, recurring collaboration across brand imagery, product communication, campaigns, photography and moving image.

The work connects Byggfabriken’s materials, products and architectural heritage with a contemporary visual expression. Responsibilities range from proposing concepts and communication formats to styling, model-making, photography, filming and post-production.

The collaboration includes:

• Product photography: light, composition and arrangement that bring out form, material, surface and construction.
• Brand imagery: an isometric visual language that uses products as graphic building blocks, creating recognisable compositions across the assortment.
• Graphic and information design: an isometric tile poster explaining the components, relationships and combinations within a modular tile system.
• Campaign photography: conceptual imagery built around colour, geometry, seasonality and product character.
• Seasonal communication: including Christmas motifs constructed entirely from products in the existing range.
• Film: four door campaign films developed with Tomas Melinder, using hand-built miniature environments in paper, clay and paint.
• Material storytelling: including painted room models and changing light to demonstrate how colour and mineral pigments behave throughout the day.
• Portraits and environments: people, homes and architectural settings that connect the products to their use.
• Interviews and company storytelling: filmed conversations about the company’s origins, ideas and direction.

The relationship also includes assessing seasonal priorities and customer context, then translating those observations into campaign proposals, scripts and content ideas.

Worked with the Family Commercial Platform team on visual communication for new-business and service exploration.

The assignment involved making abstract business-model thinking, organisational capabilities and emerging conclusions understandable through illustrations, sketches, storytelling and presentations.

Material was developed collaboratively for internal stakeholders, senior decision-makers and the Supervisory Board. The work required close dialogue with the team as ideas evolved, translating complex discussions into clear visual structures.

Recurring specialist work in commercial retouching, compositing and image finishing within IKEA’s visual and production framework.

Assignments covered interiors, exteriors, room settings, products, materials and details. The work included refining photographed environments, completing unfinished elements and creating a consistent relationship between colour, light, texture and composition.

Developed the visual identity of a climate-tech company from early exploration into a documented brand system.

The work included category and competitor analysis, logo development, a dynamic brand-mark principle, colour systems, imagery, motion behaviour and practical visual guidelines.

The resulting Brand Toolkit established how the identity could work across presentations and digital communication. The relationship extended into brand imagery, campaign material, motion and visual communication around complex propositions.

Worked directly with company leadership and marketing, using sketches and visual exploration to help clarify ideas while products and communication needs were still developing.

Extensive recurring creative work across e-commerce, retail, packaging and product communication.

The collaboration included graphic design, packaging and product lines, campaigns, product imagery, retouching, animation and social and digital content.

Assignments varied between independently developed concepts and design within established brand expressions. The relationship required moving between commercial priorities, detailed production and the practical needs of a business with a broad product assortment.

Selected concept work included Scents by Gents.

Collaborated with designer and art director Ian Bennett on the brand’s meaning, messaging and communication.

The work connected jewellery, craftsmanship and social purpose, including the story of Humanium Metal and its transformation from destructed illegal firearms into a material used in jewellery.

Contributions included brand narrative, message hierarchy, campaign concepts, taglines, website and product copy, press material, lookbooks and customer communication.

Developed post-purchase communication that connected practical product information with the meaning of the purchase, and contributed to communication adapted for the planned US market initiative.

Also produced a retail film explaining the material’s transformation into finished jewellery.

Recurring work across photographic art direction, visual development, campaign imagery, compositing, retouching and motion.

Assignments connect the intended communication with the practical requirements of photography and post-production: identifying what needs to be photographed, developing how an image can be constructed, and carrying the material through to its final expression.

Selected productions include:

• Falstaff, 2020: graphic work, logo development and animation, with subsequent image production.
• En kväll med Thalia, 2021: campaign-image production and participation in photography.
• Kronbruden, 2023: image preparation and post-production for printed communication.
• Next to Normal, 2023: campaign imagery and motion design.
• Marguerite — en dans med djävulen, 2023: photographic art direction, image composition and post-production.
• Maskerad, 2024: visual identity and logo work, photographic development and post-production.
• The Shining, 2025: visual experiments, production tests, art direction, campaign imagery and still-image animation.
• I list och lust, 2026: visual development from an established campaign concept, photographic art direction, compositing and image finishing.
• Bravissimo!, 2026: photographic art direction and post-production work.
• Mitt livs berättelse, 2026: exploratory visual development, photographic collaboration and compositing.

Developed film communication around Utvecklande Medarbetarskap, making an organisational subject accessible through narrative, spoken voices and visual storytelling.

The work included concept development, script, film production and motion graphics for an internal learning and communication context.

Planned and produced a film around the scenography model for Det var en gång ett hus, in collaboration with Tomas Melinder and Malmö Stadsteater.

The production used lighting, rear projection and smoke to turn the miniature into an atmospheric visual experience.

Responsibilities included production planning, visual direction, filming and lighting.

Recurring visual production work translating supplied communication concepts into photography and finished campaign imagery.

Assignments included photographic compositing for Mother, featuring Rufus and Martha Wainwright, and photography and retouching for Santa Baby.

Production planning considered how photographed elements would later be combined, refined and adapted across different communication formats.

Collaborative photographic work developing an existing creative premise through visual interpretation and practical production.

The process allowed room for improvisation and discoveries during the shoot, with the people, material and situation helping shape the final result.

Developed motion concepts and visual communication within multidisciplinary digital-product teams.

The work explored how an established identity could behave through movement, supporting product storytelling and the user experience within a financial-services context.

Developed and directed Saying ‘Nej!’: One Year with Köppaus.se, a fictional television report created within an artistic research project.

Translated the supplied research premise into a concrete film narrative, developing complete script drafts in dialogue with the researchers.

Responsibilities included creative direction, script development, directing, casting, camera and editing. The film functioned as a research prototype, making a possible future system tangible enough to discuss and examine.

Worked across concept development, wireframes, UX flows, UI prototyping and visual communication.

Illustrated seven of TOPP’s design principles, translating abstract ideas about collaboration, research, experimentation and decision-making into concise visual metaphors.

Contributed to an international team developing concepts and presentation material for a retail-launch project in Switzerland.

Work included concept visualisation, pitch material and visual communication supporting the proposed experience.

Developed the visual and verbal expression for an alternative-protein dog-food range.

The work combined packaging direction, logo refinement, illustration, colour, information hierarchy and consumer-facing copy. Nutrition, product benefits and sustainability needed to become understandable parts of one coherent proposition.

The initial design established a system that could extend across additional variants, with further illustration, colour differentiation, packaging communication and presentation mock-ups.

Packaging work for a Hong Kong food business, including ready meals, premium noodles and organic gluten-free pasta.

The work addressed how packaging could strengthen the brand while helping customers understand freshness, storage, ingredients, portion size, preparation and different meal occasions.

Developed visual and information systems across product categories, connecting brand expression with practical customer needs.

The Vegan Lu Rou Fan packaging subsequently led to a direct approach from Lei Garden Restaurant Group for a separate packaging programme.

Developed packaged-food concepts for a restaurant group operating in Hong Kong, mainland China and Singapore.

The work included customer and market framing, concept exploration, range design, bilingual information hierarchy, photography direction and adaptation to physical container formats.

Responsibilities also covered production planning and coordination around photography and packaging. The selected design direction received senior management approval and progressed into further range development.

Long-running collaboration with entrepreneur Filip Åkerblom across several businesses and projects.

Collaborated with photographer Johan Sundell on visual production for the Fiber range.

Work connected product photography, image treatment, compositing and motion across multiple communication formats. Responsibilities included developing the final image tone, integrating product details and preparing material for further products and flavours.

The collaboration involved production decisions before photography as well as detailed post-production.

Developed a tableware collection drawing on Swedish ceramic and applied-graphic traditions.

Original patterns were created with ink and brush, then digitised and developed across colourways and product applications including cups, glasses, plates and bowls.

The project also included early form studies for products associated with the Swedish fika tradition, connecting surface graphics with physical product considerations.

Designed the cover for the Swedish edition of Duff McKagan’s autobiography, It’s So Easy (och andra lögner).

The assignment included proposing and gaining approval for a distinct artistic direction, followed by typography, image composition and the complete cover system.

Additional editorial work included the cover and interior design of Minuten.

Alongside broader creative assignments, I work as a specialist retoucher and compositor for photographers, agencies and brands.

Brands include Axis Communications, Our Legacy, Duni, Doro and Tretorn — campaign and product imagery.

First collection launched in 2015.

Created and developed an independent jewellery brand around geometry, proportion, surface and the idea of wearable architecture.

The work spans product and collection design, visual identity, packaging, imagery, brand language and commercial presentation.

Responsibilities also include supplier relationships, overseas production coordination, factory visits, pricing, sales material, PR and international trade-show participation.

The brand has been presented through international retail and showroom contexts, with trade-show participation in Berlin, Shanghai and Paris and a collaboration with Fyodor Golan for London S/S16.

Commercial sale of the brand and packaging work in 2014.

Created a self-initiated food and packaging concept intended to become a commercial product.

The design used a continuous illustrated beanstalk that could connect across adjacent packs, creating a scalable range and a distinctive shelf presence.

Developed the brand, packaging and commercial presentation, assembled collaborators and coordinated a promotional film showing the design process.

The completed brand and packaging work was sold to a US business in 2014.

Collaborated with David Cuartielles on a robotic miniature theatre installed in Federico García Lorca’s summer-house museum in Granada.

The work involved mechanical construction, motorised movement, prototyping, lighting, testing and adaptation to a restricted physical space.

Degree project: Hälsosnacks — ett förpackningskoncept för ett lättare snacks.

Experience planning and delivering lectures, workshops, professional training and design critique for students and practising creatives.

Organisations include:

• Beckmans College of Design
• Berghs School of Communication
• Lund University / IKDC
• Skurups folkhögskola
• Fridhems folkhögskola
• HK Privat / HK Grafisk Kommunikation, Copenhagen
• Malmö Live Konserthus
• Tetra Pak Photo Club

Subjects include packaging design, portfolio development, visual storytelling, design process, advanced retouching, image editing and practical content production.

Assignments include a full-day sustainable-packaging module at Berghs in 2013 and internal Adobe and content-production training for Malmö Live in 2022.