navajo incorporated
A Manufacturer Every Gas Station Used
Navajo MFG (or as it’s now know as ‘navajo incorporated’) is a company that contracts with manufacturers overseas. Their main demographic was convenient stores and gas stations of which, they had a very large grasp on. Navajo sold sunglasses, travel-sized goods, travel-portioned pharmaceuticals, budget kitchenware, and small personal electronics. They were in direct competition with TNTsalesCO.
My role at Navajo, was the sole owner of the electronics division. I mainly worked on one brand, “HOT TIPS”, although I did do some work with private labeling over 80% of my time was with their house-brand (10% being their IT).
Package Design
My primary responsibility was to design the packages for HOT TIPS, this involved digital design and full physical mockups
Catalog Design
Annually I would have to recreate the electronics catalog and update it with a new look and product editions
Design POP
There would be a time where endcap and POP designs were needed, I took care those for the electronics division
On-site IT
Basic troubleshooting for the less technologically inclined personnel
Consistency
A lot of what was done in the HOT TIPS line was pretty repetitive, I think the best way to show what I did is to show some of the catalogs.
I created every single facet and was involved every little step along the way. It may seem like a simple catalog but the work that was done for each individual piece was quite consuming. Some of the steps involved includes creating the die-lines, then the art, then physically making the mockup (vacuumed plastic involved), working with the overseas manufacturers, photography, icon building, catalog building, POP, stand and planogram design.
Industrial Design
One of my favorite things I did at Navajo is design a new ALL-IN-ONE charger.
The charger would come with a cable that has interchangeable tips to maximize device compatibility.
- Wall Plug
- Cigarette Lighter Plug
- 9V Battery Leads
- Optional Solar Battery
We worked with the factory to get an early production run of a less capable version, the fully fleshed out idea wouldn’t be implemented until after my departure.
The charger I designed was quite popular so cell-phone accessories companies would approach Navajo to private label their own.
I worked with around a dozen private labels at my time at Navajo.
Private Labeling
Quickcell and cricKet are a couple examples of some of the private labeling I did
