Spring 2024
Overview
This project's objective was to design a 2/0 spot color application cylinder storage container for a baking mix.
Research + Brainstorming
To begin my research, I first scoured through Williams & Sonoma's online catalog of baking mixes. Tons of cylinder containers, but with more sophisticated, traditional, and vintage styles. Most had illustrated mascots or crisp product imagery. I realized that this style of packaging isn't something I vibe with, so I headed to Pinterest. I gathered a lot of great examples of all sorts of packaging, not just cylinders, that I loved. I get excited by neobrutalist, vintage minimalist, abstract minimalist, and retro minimalist packaging. I knew right away that this was the style I wanted to head in for my baking mix.
Cylinder Die
The tailoring ruler I used to wrap around and measure my chosen cylinder ended up being off by 0.25 inches from all of my other rulers, so it was quite a headache figuring out my die measurements initially.
Sketches + Doodles
The three baking mix concepts I did sketches for were a Japanese-inspired pancake mix, a cocktail-inspired cupcake mix, and a cajun biscuit mix. I always have to remind myself that my sketches can be horrifically messy and bad, but that's okay. I tried to sketch whatever came into my head. If I wasn't vibing with what was hitting the paper, I abandoned it. The Japanese-inspired pancake mix concept was what I was gravitating toward more than anything. My vision was most clear with this idea initially. After showing these sketches in class, I was advised that my favorite idea shouldn't be the one I immediately finalize and that I should spend some more time developing my other concepts first.
Thumbnails + Thumbnail Dummies
I scaled my dieline down to 45% size and used that template for my three thumbnail sketches. With these tighter sketches, I was really able to see more distinctive styles emerge that reflect the target audience for each baking mix. The cajun biscuit mix is fun, family-friendly, and aims to appeal to any generation. The cocktail cupcake mix is marketed as "grown-up cupcakes" and is aimed towards older, more sophisticated milennials who may not normally choose cupcakes for a dessert. The Japanese-inspired pancake mix is aimed towards younger millenialls and Gen-Z who gravitate towards both unique flavors and bold, neobrutalist aesthetics. When blowing up the thumbnails to full size and assembling them, I realized that I needed to extend the width of my dieline since the paper couldn't quite cover the entire glue tab. I also noticed that I needed to reduce the size of the front panels so the entirety of the product names and descriptions could be seen.
Intermediates + Intermediate Dummies
After class feedback, I chose to draw the Mikkusu and Lagniappe packages tighter at 75% size. I indicated typefaces more clearly and reduced the width of the front panel. After blowing up and assembling the Lagniappe package, I realized that the front panel may be a little too small now. Where I fell down on both of these intermediates was the instructions sections. It was the last section I drew on both of these, so I wasn't as clean and didn't include all the information that I had wanted to. Overall, this stage gave me a much clearer idea of style, direction, and layout.
Final + Final Dummy
For the final hand comp, I returned to the classic checkerboard pattern and moved it to the bottom of the cylinder. [I tried to fix my panel width issues, and although this composition is a lot closer to what I was aiming for, the front panel is still slightly too large. I keep having spacing issues with the silly fork and food illustration, which also probably affects how I see and position that entire front panel. I added more detail to the other panels, except for the nutrition label and actual instructions, which I still have to finalize. The "tip" section looks ugly to me, so I'm going to adjust that as well. The last big thing I need to adjust on the computer is where the actual cylinder die overlaps, which is on the edge of the nutrition panel and the instructions panel. The copy is too close to each other and doesn't look well thought out. My poor handwriting doesn't help with the entire vision, but I'm trusting the process!
Black + White Computer Progressions
I was struggling when it came to putting everything on the computer. The entire design looked like a silly little art project rather than a real-life product. I also struggled with the sizes of different elements, especially since I had such a huge bottom border taking up tons of real estate. As I progressed, I made a lot of changes to typefaces. The instructions panel was killing me since I had some weird empty spaces that just didn't look right no matter what I did.
Black + White Computer Dummy
I eventually landed on a happy medium with the instructions panel issue where they were contained within a box, which also helped with the front logo standing out more.
Color Studies
What are these, color strips for ants? I had to print my strips super small because I was running out of ink, which didn't produce the greatest results. Still, they were overprinted good enough to give me a nice direction of color. I knew I wanted to incorporate red in my design, but I tried to go out of my comfort zone of bright 'fun' colors and instead tried more warm, deep, and almost vintage-looking color combinations. Cremes, browns, and burnt oranges were what I was trying to test. I felt all of these were food colors, but could also do well with my retro-inspired design. I was pretty surprised when one of my favorite color combinations ended up being the brighter blue and red.
Final Assembled Cylinder
I'm glad I stuck with the red and blue. It's giving a little retro, Americana, family-friendly Southern vibes. I was so happy with how this turned out, although the reds printed much darker than anticipated. This was a happy accident because I love how the deeper red looks. I had a few issues with bubbling when spray mounting to the cylinder, but otherwise, I love how this came together. I'm super happy everything lined up perfectly as well!
Flat Clean Digital Cylinder
:)