GripSeal
Proprietary container, packaging range and live product website.
Good Ideas! Need a practical streak.
Independent design for brands, packaging, websites and practical AI tools.
01 / 07 Cape Town, South Africa / Working locally and remotely
02 / 07The practice
Skilld Design is the independent practice of Neil de la Harpe. The work covers brand identity and packaging, websites and ecommerce, and practical AI tools and workflows.
With 25 years of design experience, Neil works with you directly, from the first decisions through to finished design and implementation.
03 / 07Commissioned work / selected proof
Real constraints.Work carried through.
Identity, packaging, digital experience and production decisions developed far enough to become useful work.
Tifosi Sports
Identity carried through an ecommerce transition and clearer product routes.
Titanium Coffee
Identity developed into a coherent multi-blend packaging system.
04 / 07Four connected capabilities
The right workfor the problem.
Skilld Design is organised around four outcomes: brand identity, product-range packaging, websites and ecommerce, and practical workflows. A project may use one area or connect several when the job genuinely crosses them.
- 01
Brand direction & identity
Clarify the offer, establish the direction and build an identity that can be applied consistently.
Titanium Coffee / Scotz Auto / Volt Mobile - 02
Product & packaging systems
Make a product or range hold together across variants, information, 3D, artwork and production.
GripSeal / Titanium Coffee / Stylo Mobile - 03
Digital presence, websites & commerce
Turn a business, catalogue or customer journey into a clearer working digital experience.
Tifosi Sports / Scotz Auto - 04
Creative technology & practical workflows
Define, build and evaluate bounded tools or workflows for creative and repeated work.
CueWright / PSsst / GenStudio / Agent study
05 / 07Products & experiments
Problems turned intoworking products.
These projects move from a real frustration or creative question to a structured product, workflow or experiment. Each page explains what prompted the project, how it was approached and what it shows.
CueWright
A local-first macOS app that turns plain-language creative intent into structured cues for image, video, audio and 3D generation tools.
Read the project
PSsst
I needed a better way to organise and keep track of my Facebook Group posts. Existing scheduling tools couldn’t solve the problem, so I built PSsst to handle the planning, reminders and posting history myself.
Read the project
GenStudio
A node-based macOS studio for composing, running and reviewing local visual AI workflows on local hardware.
Read the project06 / 07Why Skilld Design
Senior judgementstays close to the work.
Skilld Design is Neil de la Harpe’s independent practice. Projects are led directly from understanding the problem through the agreed production, implementation or testing stage.
Where a job requires specialist expertise, collaboration can be agreed and named. The thinking, responsibilities and handover should stay connected long enough for the agreed result to work.
About the practice“He is adaptable in developing his skill set to accommodate my requirements… and adapts seamlessly to different brand styles and project requirements.”
Jo Coburn / AVID Design Collective
07 / 07Start with the real situation
What needs towork differently?
Describe what has changed, what is getting in the way and what a useful result would need to do. You do not need to choose a service or arrive with a finished brief.
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