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Day Two - Blog Post #3

Today we swapped the packages we’d worked on this past week and our assignment was to recreate the new package but digitally! My new package is fun because each text block has a gradient colour scheme. After getting a close to accurate digital outline, I made sure to grab the correct swatches for the gradient from the Pantene swatch books that my professor provided in class.

I’m lucky that I’ve had quite a bit of practice with the pen tool this past summer or I may have found this a bit more frustrating. At this point, I think that illustrator is my favourite program to work in. I still need to get on buying some replacement blades for next week to ensure a good cut. I really want to make sure I get this package as accurate as possible so I’ve scanned the package itself to double check my work.

Reflection: Taking this tactile work back to digital adds a fluidity from hands-on to computer work, something that I’ve always appreciated about design work. 

PLACE - Mood Board

Day One - Blog Post #1

I knew that class would be good today when we walked in and there was a picture of an egg on the powerpoint. I thought we were probably going to talk abt how an egg is a naturally good package, I didn’t think that we were going to have the opportunity to try and design a safe package for an egg in 20 minutes!

We weren’t given a lot of direction other than to make the package, so my group wondered if we were supposed to focus on appearance, function or perhaps both. We decided to go for both and used two rolls of duck tape to encase the egg, paper to cushion it and then we wrapped it in foam. We also gave our package a little bit of decoration in the form of a pipecleaner bow and an origami butterfly. 

I think we focused too much on the appearance of the package instead of putting as much focus on the function. Our package was poorly taped and when Nancy shoved it off the table, unfortunately, the package burst a bit and the eggshell got a crack in it.

It was really fun to do something so fast and right away and got our brains thinking for the rest of the day!

We learned how to score paper using a bone tool and tried it out ourselves on a box shape. So far, I’m really enjoying how hands on this class is.

Our assignment for this next week is to take a package that we were given in class and reproduce it three times, let’s see how it turns out!

Something to reflect on: We’re always wanting to think of the environment as graphic designers but when it comes to packaging and brand, brand needs to come first for a corporation. I think that makes it the graphic designer’s job, to provide a sustainable design for the company in question from the get-go. When redesigning for a brand, however, and working for someone like coca-cola who uses tons and tons of plastic each year but is so iconic, how much room does a designer have to play and is it that designer’s duty to do what they can to help the environment even if it means deviating from brand standards? Is it possible to stick to brand standards with the environment in mind?

We’ve Got Colour

So with a chosen logo to work with, I now have to figure out colour. I know these posts have been a little bit long-winded but bear with me here, typing all this out is helping me think as well. 

When working with colour, it’s important to think about emotions you’re trying to get across as well as what your audience is. Since my audience is the community, I want to use colours that are welcoming and friendly.

I started by collecting some colours that I like. I usually do this by looking at other work I’ve done and picking from photos that fit the mood of the project.

Lately, I’ve been really into softer, bright colours. 

These are some of the colour combos that I played with for this project but ultimately, I’ve ended up on the pale yellow, red and blue. They’re a softer take on a fully saturated primary palette. I may use the light pink as well later in some pattern work. 

Yellow = optimism, happiness, enthusiasm, hope red = passion, love, fire, determination blue = sea, sky, confidence, calm

Day Five - Blog Post #6

Today we got started on redesigning a package of our choice. It’s a project I was kind of looking forward to since I first saw my friends working on it two years ago!

I had two packages I wanted to work on at the start of conceptualizing. One of them was an easy choice, an over packaged, instant matcha tea satchet, four box extra, plastic wrapped disaster. 

The other, was a beautiful knife pushed inside a plastic cage.

Though I knew which one would be easiest for me, something about the knife called to me. I started to paint pictures in my head of what my package could be and I knew, in the end, that was the one that I wanted to do. 

I have started ideating and drawing thumbs but I think I know what I’m heading towards. I want my audience to really enjoy their experience of opening the package to reveal their tool, in the same excited way that a graphic designer might unwrap their gorgeous apple packaging to reveal a macbook. 

To a culinary student or worker, a pairing knife is the ultimate tool, like the macbook is to the graphic designer. Both are equally important, both give the same delight and ease of use.

Competitor Analysis

My main competitor for Place is the Nanaimo Entertainment Centre. This is the only sort of location downtown that serves a similar purpose to what I’m going for with Place, even then, it isn’t quite the same. The Entertainment Centre is an old movie theatre that offers the use of the entire building for $500/24 hrs.

Unfortunately for me, the centre does not seem to have any actual branding and is sadly, a building that seems to be in disuse. When I walked through it, I felt this vast feeling inside me, nostalgia for a past I didn’t participate in and awe at the high ceilings. The place is a gem in the downtown core that gets overlooked because the building itself is in disrepair and it is not much to look at from the outside. With some proper branding and some money poured into it, I think it could be a good competitor for what I want Place to be. Still, the goal of the entertainment centre is to offer a rental location for various events in the community for a relatively cheap cost. 

Unfortunately, the competitor analysis for the group that I was in for class was far too different to be of use to me. My group was dealing with tour companies, a museum and a water taxi service so costs and branding were all over the place. My audience is also different as they are not tourists, but members of the community who I want to be tourists in their own city.

Learning about the Entertainment Centre only cemented my feeling that Place would be a good fit for Nanaimo.

Day Eight - Blog Post #10

Coombs Country Market Field Trip

We went on a field trip to Coombs today to visit their grocery store. Coombs has a lot of really neat packages in their store because they sell items that come from all over the world! There were beautiful Balsamic bottles, chocolate bars, yoghurt packages and so much more! However, we were there with a simple enough goal and I wasn’t to get distracted, although in the end, it happened. We can blame the edible glitter and handmade paper for that!

Anyway, the goal was to find two sets of a package series that we could draw inspiration from and use as an example for our next project. We’re supposed to design a box for Granola for this delicious, local-based fresh juice company.

Series #1: Fee Brothers Bitters

How is the branding consistent across all of the packages?

While the brand’s colour changes, the layout of the packages remains consistent. The type, logo, paper and sticker along the top are all the same. The only thing that changes in fact, is the colour. Even then, the colours are in the same tones. Even with just a quick glance at the shelf, someone could register that they’re a series.

How does the design differentiate amongst “flavours”?  

The design does not differ much, the only thing I did find is that on some of the bottles, the lid had a different colour to denote flavour as well. However, this wasn’t completely consistent so it was hard to say what it meant completely, which was a small issue in the concept overall.

What is the brand concept?  

The concept for this brand seems to be higher end and meant to make the audience feel like it is an old-fashioned product. It is wrapped in paper to give it this illusion of being vintage and the sticker that runs around the top displays the portraits of what one must assume are the Fee Brothers. What’s fun about is that you can’t see the liquid inside until you open and unwrap the bottle, giving it the feeling of something you might be able to present as a gift.

Other thoughts?

I’m kind of curious to see what the bottle looks like underneath the paper and was seriously considering buying a bottle just to check. It’d be cool if this product was so easily recycled by just removing the label and bringing the glass in! While I want to create something consistent, I also want to make sure that I focus on the environment. I’m already thinking about what I might do to make the package sustainable and within my client’s budget. I like the idea of glass.

Series #2: Whittaker’s Chocolate.

How is the branding consistent across all of the packages?

Whittakers is a really neat brand because while there are a lot of flavours, the Whittakers chocolate brand is unmistakable. I first came across it in New Zealand, where it is manufactured and proudly second only after Cadbury chocolate. Every single package is a beautiful shade of gold in a paper wrap and when opened, another foil wrap of gold protects the chocolate inside. The branding remains consistent by keeping the logo at the top of the package, followed by the chocolate information and name.

How does the design differentiate amongst “flavours”?  

There is always a block of chocolate at the bottom but it is always illustrated with the correct flavour profile per package. Each flavour also has a unique font colour. Otherwise, the rest of the package remains the same.

What is the brand concept?  

The concept for the brand is definitely meant to be luxurious, denoted by the gold wrap colour. The font tells us that it is also meant to be old-fashioned. Knowing New Zealand, I know how proud they are of their heritage and this chocolate is meant to draw on that. The user should feel that when they are picking up this block at the grocery store, they feel like they’re in a lovely old candy shop.

Other thoughts?

I was wondering if I was drawn to this series because of the nostalgia I felt when looking at it, you can’t count on one hand the amount of these bars I got through when I lived there! However, you can tell just by the image that this is a really strong series. There is no question that they are linked and I think the key to that is only changing a small part of the package to reflect the different flavours. The goal is definitely to have the user know without question that the two separate items that they are holding are linked.

DAY ELEVEN - BLOG POST #13

Today we met with our client for the first time since our initial meeting two weeks ago! We also had a visit from Gord Wright, a Hemlock Printer rep. He had a lot to tell us about the printing process and he was very informative. 

With that though, I realized that the seed paper that I was so attached to might not be the right way to go. The problem with seed paper is how moisture effects it. Grocery stores and the Goodlife Juice store may not be a great environment moisture-wise for that. Then, there’s also the seeds that are used and whether or not they are native to BC. If the seed in the paper is an invasive species, that would not be great for our environment. 

Oh well, kill your darlings.

My client liked the box with the pour spout best out of the ideas I showed her but then we realized that the granola will probably be packaged inside a plastic bag inside the box to keep it dry. I’m wondering if I can come up with a solution for this, like a tearaway that’s attached to the bag and box so that when you pull the spout out, the bag is torn open. I’m not sure how this will work, but I’d like to give it a try.

If that doesn’t work, I’m also thinking of just cutting a corner of the top of the box out so that when it’s on the shelf, the bag can be seen. The user can then just tear the bag open without even having to open the box and reseal it with a clip.

I guess I’ll have to try both of these things.

Design & Thinking Documentary

Design & Thinking is an interesting documentary to watch as a designer because it has designers in the working field that agree and disagree with it, and designers who don’t know exactly what it is. I’m always fascinated when we get to hear from other designers in a visual sense, much more so than the written word. I thought some interesting things were said, here are some ideas that I really quite liked.

“Design Thinking is applying design methods to the working class and world.”

I thought that this was a neat little concept because it really helps me as a designer understand more what Design Thinking is and what we’re trying to do with it. This makes it feel like Design Thinking is less a scientific method and more of a way to bridge a gap.

“Design is a sport where you have to participate.”

I think a lot of designers, myself included, feel like we have to figure everything out on our own but Design Thinking really cements the idea that design thinking is a team effort. I really like how this phrase puts it into such easy terms. 

“Rapid Prototyping: It’s ok to have a bad idea.”

Luckily, this is something we’re taught well in our program but it’s nice to see this concept out in the real world. I’m so nervous about having to be perfect when I leave school but making wrong decisions seem inevitable. 

“Ask Why”

This I think, is my favourite idea from the documentary. I feel like it’s so easy to just take a client’s request and push it out without thought to exactly what they asked for. It’s easy to fall into a rhythm and just forget how to use our design minds, but I never want to forget how to be creative.

Before reading anything much about circular design I felt like I had a vague concept about what it was already. My understanding was that circular design focuses not only on the design of the project but the scope of it and the life cycle. 

Now I think I can understand that Circular Design is more focused on the reusability of the product and how many times it can be reused within its cycle, which seems like an interesting ideology as there’s been a lot of focus on proper recycling in the past few years. My dad likes to talk my ear off about how back in the day, people used to fix stuff instead of throwing it out. There’s evidence of that too when you look at food packaging from back in the day, cracker tins could be reused to hold bits and ends. Flour sacks were purposefully printed with fun patterns in the 1930′s after manufacturers realized that women would make clothing from them. 

Maybe they weren’t thinking about it that way at the time, but that seems to be a prime example of circular design. It’s the idea of the continuity of the design’s life after its expected death and giving it a new purpose. 

I think that circular design ties in nicely with design thinking but wouldn’t say that it’s here to replace design thinking. I think if anything, that it’s just something to consider when using design thinking. 

One concept I don’t like is the idea of subscriptions. While that works for single-use items like books or games that you might want to eventually pass on, it annoys the living hell out of me that there are so many subscriptions in the digital sense. For example, why do I have to pay monthly or yearly for the Adobe cloud when I’d be better off just buying it in one go?

I think when it comes to our show at least, we can definitely think about circular design. Here are some ideas:

reusable frames for the display that we can leave to the next year or take home for personal use.

personal branding that can be reused for other purposes, eg. a program booklet that refolds with guides into a paper airplane.

Renting table cloths instead of buying them.

I think we need to also think about the environmental impact of printing for our show and consider less projects but a more careful selection on what to show.