The story ofmockups-design.com
How it all began and how a small side project slowly turned into my full-time work.
Hello! My name is Andrew, and mockups-design.com is probably the most unexpected project of my professional life.
I never planned to build a website that would grow to this scale, and I certainly didn’t imagine that mockups would become my full-time job. But the project slowly took shape on its own, piece by piece, thanks to the people who used it and pushed me to keep creating. So let me tell you the story from the very beginning.
Early days and a simple idea
Years ago, when I was running a small graphic design studio, most of my work revolved around packaging design. At some point I decided to start a little blog for designers. Nothing ambitious — more like a quiet corner of the internet where I could experiment, share ideas, and publish small resources. To make the blog more useful, I occasionally created free mockups. They were meant as a bonus, not the main attraction.
Very quickly it turned out that the mockups were exactly what people were looking for. Designers from Poland began writing to me, saying they were using my files to present their work and that they found them genuinely helpful. Then came messages from outside Poland, from people who had simply stumbled upon the blog and became regular users. I realized that the mockups were much more valuable than I had expected, so I decided to build a proper website dedicated entirely to them. That website became mockups-design.com.
Packaging mockups and the birth of Smarty
A little later, something else happened: I became completely fascinated with packaging mockups. I enjoyed creating them so much that I eventually launched a second website — smartymockups.com — dedicated purely to packaging. It was meant to be a more advanced, professional place for large, complex mockups intended for commercial use. Over the years I created more than 5000 packaging mockups for Smarty. That number still surprises me when I think about it.
For a long time, I worked on both sites at the same time. But as the years passed, I felt more and more strongly that my creative “home” was mockups-design.com. It had the spirit, the freedom, and the connection with users that made the whole project fun in the first place. Smarty was valuable and important, but it lived a separate life. At some point I realized that I didn’t want two worlds anymore — I wanted one strong, clear platform.
Both worlds together
That’s why I made the decision to slowly move everything under a single roof. Today, many of the packaging mockups originally created for smartymockups.com appear on mockups-design.com as free, smaller versions. The full-resolution versions remain available in the complete premium pack for people who truly need them, but the heart of the project — the openness and accessibility — is now here.
mockups-design.com has become my workshop, my creative playground, and the place where I can experiment without limits. I create every mockup myself, and even after all these years, the process is still fun. I keep learning, adapting to trends, improving my techniques, and trying to create mockups that put the design in the spotlight — not the mockup itself.
Still growing, still exciting
And the most rewarding part is seeing my files used in real projects, from student portfolios to large advertising campaigns. If you’re reading this, thank you for being part of this story. I hope the mockups you find here make your work easier, faster, and more enjoyable. And I hope you’ll stay around, because the story of mockups-design.com is still unfolding, and I have plenty of ideas left to explore.