Fall 2023
Overview
This project challenged us to create a 3-part Form and a Logotype for Patty Cakes, a specialty cake
company. We were provided all of the copy and had to design the form intuitively by combining cake descriptions, costs, and other order information from a “client.” Our final result would be a creative and easy-to-understand (and fill out) form design.
company. We were provided all of the copy and had to design the form intuitively by combining cake descriptions, costs, and other order information from a “client.” Our final result would be a creative and easy-to-understand (and fill out) form design.
Research + Brainstorming
I started by brainstorming some key things that I personally appreciate seeing on forms I've filled out in my life. Then, I moved on to research some existing examples. A lot of the forms I found weren't necessarily food-related order forms, but I saved form examples where I could pick out certain box/table designs and text formatting choices that worked well visually. I also did some research into fun logotypes.
Sketches + Doodles
Before beginning the actual form sketches, I started sketching out my logotype ideas. I found this to be really easy and fun, and I quickly landed on a style that I liked. I also decided that I wanted to incorporate a cute illustration, so I sketched out some little cakes, but I knew to focus on the form first before spending a lot of time on extra illustrations. My first step when it came to the actual form was to figure out what content I wanted to group together based on the provided copy. For example, I knew I should probably group the delivery instructions and delivery information together. Then, I used very basic boxes to sketch out potential page placements for each of these information groupings.
Thumbnails
From my sketches, I took three totally different ideas for my form design to draw larger and tighter. At this stage, I was leaning more toward the two forms with a centered logotype. I'm glad I tried these two approaches. One of these two designs incorporated a narrower column on the left-hand side for the personal information and the other incorporated two equal-width columns with the personal information centered on top.
Intermediate Compositions
For my intermediate hand compositions, I first scanned a blew-up to full-size my two favorite tight thumbnails and used tracing paper to block in some quick changes before tweaking and recreating the overall design on a separate paper. At this stage, I realized that as fun as the second form would be with the funky typefaces and box and title designs, I should probably keep it more simple. During the class critiques, more people were also leaning towards the form on the left as well, so that's the design I decided to take to the final stages. I'm also glad I went with the form on the left, since I didn't want to have a ton of lines within each of the boxes. Both forms at this stage still felt too 'thick' to me, but I would adjust this later!
Final Hand Composition
For my final hand composition, I rounded the corners of the boxes, changed around some typefaces, minorly adjusted the placement of a few elements, and added a little illustration. Looking back at this now is so funny because I ended up changing SO many things after this point and this final hand comp looks terrible, to be honest. But I'm so glad I drew this at full size at this stage because it made the changes glaringly obvious as I headed to the computer. I knew I needed to adjust the company address and contact information placement, the boxes, the typefaces, the illustration, the tints, and more.
Computer Progressions
I'm not great with using tables, so once I was in InDesign, there was definitely a little learning curve as I re-familiarized myself with the tables and styles functions. To start, I cleaned up my logotype and created an even cuter little cake illustration to pair with a hand-drawn "thank you" that matched my logotype. I really didn't like the script typeface once I saw it on the computer and I really hated how the light tints looked in the box headers. There were a lot of things to change, and I marked up my first computer progression a lot.
Also, I had my boyfriend fill out my first printed output. Looking back, this really wasn't even that helpful considering his handwriting is the size of an ant's handwriting anyway, so I couldn't gauge if I needed to change the sizes of the boxes. He did give me very validating feedback that everything on the form was placed very intuitively, though, and he wasn't confused at all while filling it out. Once I got to my second and third output, I settled on the reverse-type box headers which looked so much nicer with the black of my logotype and illustration. The areas where I had to make the most adjustments were the cake box and the company contact and address information. Everything else was relatively minor!
Final Digital Form
I finally ended up with a clean and legible final form design! I mainly adjusted type within the cake box. The dollar signs and the circles gave me a lot of trouble. I decided that tilting the cake illustration and the "thank you" didn't look good. I also decided against curving the boxes. After some other minor adjustments to paragraph spacing and leading, I felt happy with my result! I had two different people fill out my form with very positive feedback.
Final Printed + Assembled Form
