Today I began by creating the Superlambanana illustrations that are to be placed on the cups. I was unsure how I was going to do this at first, but since I was planning on creating up to 10, I needed to find a quick solution. I began by trying to create Mandy the Superlambanana as she sold for the most money at auction. Because Mandy has a complicated tile design, I decided by best option was to live trace a photograph on illustrator. I felt that this kind of vector would blend well with the rest of my design.
Unfortunately, as I began to live trace and experiment with different numbers of colours, the results were not as I had planned. This was due to the lack of good photos, and the detail in the design. I did not want the cups to have photographs on as cartoon style drawings come across as more playful and exciting. As you can see from the screenshot below, Mandy's face is too dark and the tiles are lost and look odd as a result of the live tracing.
I then considered sketching the designs and scanning these into illustrator to be coloured. I began my sketches of Mandy however my sketches did not compliment the sculptures. I feel that if I had more time I could create some good hand drawn illustrations. So therefore I decided to scrap Mandy from the cups.
I then began to go through the list of Superlambananas I had selected as potentials for the cups. Some of these had issues such as bad photos which meant I was unable to live trace them to a good standard.
My process involved, selecting one of my own photos or a photo I found from my research and placing this into photoshop. I would then use a variety of selection tools appropriate for the photograph and deleted as much background as I could. I then copied and pasted this into illustrator to live trace. I tried to select a live trace option that did not look too photographic but detailed enough to be recognisable.
I replaced any SLBs I could not create with others that I thought were the most visually interesting. I also decided to include an outline of a SLB to encourage customers to design own.
Below are my results plus their names -
After creating these I began to place these onto cups. I had tested my first live trace on a cup, so that if it didn't work I did not spend time illustrating all 10 SLBs.
Because I had felt the cup sample I was using was a bit boring, I used the hue tool on photoshop to colour the lid yellow. consistent with my theme. I feel that this pop of colour made the cups more appealing and attractive. The cups would be far more noticeable from a distance, and hopefully people would be more eager to try them.
I choose my favourite logo from the previous experiments to test my Superlambananas as this is most likely to end up as my final logo. I placed a SLB illustration on another cup as if it is on the other side. I then added a speech bubble which explains what the name of the SLB is. I feel this was important to clarify to the customer what the image actually is. I am really pleased with how the green, yellow and blue work with each other. The colours are only basic, but appealing. I am pleased with how I have managed to place my logos onto cups to really get a feel for what the brand would look like - this is something I haven't attempted before.
I later realised that if the speech bubble is on a white cup it will become invisible, so I used the paintbrush tool to draw a line - defining its shape. I personally think that the lowercase Futura works really well inside the speech bubbles as it as a friendly, comic book feel. There is a mistake in the point of the speech bubble, where it is quite sketchy. I decided to keep this because it gives a nice arty feel which links in with the sculptures. I did have some issues fitting some words into the speech bubble, as I wanted to keep them a similar size for consistency but the names for the SLBS are very long. To resolve this I broke the names down into the words that they are typically made out of.
One way I considered to help visualise my designs was to lay the elements of the cup out in a strip which would be wrapped round the cup. I plan to have 3 sections which include the main logo - the SLB and informational sentences. However, I find it difficult to visualise these on the product in this setting. Although it did make me question the positioning of "COLLECT US ALL". I need to communicate that the cups can be collected but I do not want to make my cups too busy as to get a message across quickly. I will consider this later in the design process.
Below I placed the sections onto sides of the cup, I found this easier to visualise. I am happy with the sections within the black square because they are simple yet effective. The informational section needs improving. I did add a small yellow vector of the logo as I feel the text needs to be paired up with something else to make it more interesting. I like this effect at the moment and plan to keep it.
My next step was to try developing the cup sleeves. I originally tested this with the standard brown cardboard style look. I thought it would be good to include the main logo on the sleeve so the packaging works as a set. I would still like to keep the speech bubble "Help! I'm Stuck!" as this adds an original touch. I first tried placing both of these together on one side of the sleeve. This looked too crowded and did not work with my minimalistic theme. I also felt that the cardboard colour ruined the effect of the bright colours. So I decided to get more adventurous and try my bright blue on the sleeve. This really pops against the bright yellow lid the yellow lines bring the lid and sleeve together. I am however questioning whether to use a white colour for the lines against this blue so the design isn't too bright. I plan to get feedback as to which looks best. I also experimented with the lid, trying it in blue instead. I prefer the blue lid as I feel it is more striking, however I feel the yellow sleeve isn't as appealing. I plan to get feedback for this also.
 |
| Coffee sleeve experiments |
Many coffee shops serve milkshakes and not everyone likes coffee, so to spread the word about Superlambananas as much as possible, I think I should include packaging for this. To do this I (very badly) coloured a milkshake image to make it look yellow - this could be a banana/banoffee flavour which would tie in with my theme. The issue I have is that I want the drink to be visible but the designs for my cups are quite long. So the design will have to be slightly smaller to fit in, I think once printed this would be large enough to understand.
Another item I started experiments with is loyalty cards. These are common in coffee shops and I feel that by having one of these, customers would be more likely to buy more and collect them. The design is very simplistic at the moment, it needs to be minimalistic to keep in with my theme, however I need to find a way to make it appear more appealing. I decided to use banana stamps as this ties in with the sculptures and is more comical and interesting then simply using a logo or otherwise. I liked the idea of having contrasting blue and white sides and colours as this is eye-catching. The bananas will especially stand out against this. As this is only the first design, it still needs development, which I will continue tomorrow.
Below are my final illustrations with speech bubbled placed onto cups. I used temporary line to match all the SLBs up to the same position. I altered some of the speech bubbles by reflecting and rotating so that the speech looks as if it is coming from the mouth of the lamb. When smaller the illustrations begin to look more like photographs which is what I didn't want, so I may reduce the detail in these further. However, passing feedback suggested that the cups look good. Some thought that I had curved my images to the cups - which I hadn't. I was glad to receive this feedback as I was unsure how to curve the illustrations to the cup and make the overall look professional and realistic. I may be able to just place the illustrations on top for my presentation.
My next steps include developing more items such as the loyalty card and cake wrap. I am considering a simple form of advertising if possible too. Tomorrow I will organise a critique to find out what elements of my designs I should take forward or change.
No comments:
Post a Comment