Adventures in the Third Dimension.
Cheyenne Nolan Spring 2018
“ Learning to be
a designer who
wears many hats.
Reflect What is packaging? ART 575 started the semester by reflecting on this question. To me, packaging design means designing around an object, or the design that holds an object.
What does a package have to do? Really, a package needs to be a jack of all trades. Mostly importantly, a package has to communicate the contents and purpose of the object(s) it holds. Lots of considerations go into designing packaging: › who the typical user will be › who the intended audience is › what the contents contain › what the contents’ purpose is All of these factors go into creating the overall tone of the product and convince its value to a consumer. Good packaging makes a great first impression.
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“ Good packaging makes
a great first impression.
Research For the second part of Project 1, I ventured into the wild for examples of good vs. bad packaging both design-wise and environmentally.
The Good The up&up brand light bulbs have clear hierarchy and are simple and clean. It really stood out compared to other bulbs on the shelf; the white space mixed with minimal color is very eye-catching. There is extra information, but it is subdued compared to other brands...
The Bad Whoever designed this box for General Electric’s LED bulbs had recently discovered how to use gradients and maybe got a little excited. The thin white text on yellow is hard to read. Additionally, there’s a lot of info on the very front that could be anywhere else; for example, in an interior booklet.
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The Good Lodge’s packaging is as minimal as possible. Instead of a sleeve it has a single, thin sticker with all the information the product needs, and uses only a few colors of ink.
The Bad T-fal is using a lot of different inks here, and its sleeve uses a lot of paper compared to other pans. It also has a bell-shaped di-cut taken out of it to show the texture. It uses much more paper than it needs to if it wanted to show off the texture; the sleeve could probably be about 45% smaller and function the same way while being more sustainable and nicer-looking.
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Making design sustainable Before class, we were sent away to ponder the question, “what are the impacts of the objects we create?” I did some research on how to reduce that impact, both in how I design and the materials I use. One of the most important things I took away was to intentionally design pieces for extended use and reuse.
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Who does it well? I love any kind of smell-good, so it’s no surprise that one of my favorite stores is Lush Cosmetics. I’m also a fan of their branding. Coincidentally, they do sustainable design really well. For example, their pots (right) are 100% postconsumer recycled plastic. Additionally, they’re intended for reuse and recycling, encouraging consumers to reuse the tubs as planters/ containers or to recycle them by bringing in five for a free face mask. Most products are either naked (AKA packageless) or encourage reusable containers like tins for solid lotions, wearable bandanas in place of gift-wrapping, and canvas tote bags for shopping and daily use. Even their packing peanuts are 100% biodegradable (and edible! Though they don’t taste very good).
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Dungeons & Dragons, but for marketing professionals This week we learned what personas are and how they function in marketing and for designers. Essentially, personas are characters with unique characteristics and likes reminiscent of the audience you want to target. They’re extremely useful for reminding you that you’re designing for a person and not a user. Creating these personas is like filling out a character sheet a la Dungeons & Dragons, but with less high fantasy.
Teamwork! In-class, we were divided into groups and given random demographics (age, ethnicity, gender, marital status) and created a persona from those. Classmates Jessica Byrd, Michael Chou, and I were introduced to Rebecca Smith: age 4554, white, and a divorcee with one son. Some miscellaneous facts about Rebecca: › hates the nickname Becky › listens to adult contemporary music, even if she doesn’t really “get it” › can cook, but prefers take out › her son, Brandon, is in college › has a cat, Jingles, but is allergic › loves a girl’s night out, especially if it involves margaritas or Merlot
Food: Chain Restaurant Mexican. El Nepal. Rarely cooks at home, she can but doesn’t.
Pets: grey short hair Cat ( Jingles )
Internet: Social Media, Email, and Click and Point games
Color: Wine, Plum, Merlot Grape
TV: Food Network, HGTV Music: 102.3 Likes the sound of the music, but doesnt really get it.
Hero: Her Parents
Regrets: She doesn’t regret having Brandon, but wish she could have pursued her Nursing Career
Goal: To see my son succeed.
Health: Asthma, Allergic to Cats
Sports: Superbowl only. Greenbay
Favorite Drink: The occasional Red Wine Margaritta
Food: Kroger, Sams Club
Children: One Son - Brandon Age 19
Car: Nissan Ultima (Maroon)
Shopping: Kohls, Low-Mid-end makeup
Job: Receptionist
“LIVE LAUGH LOVE”
Age: 45 - 54 Gender: Female Ethnicity: White Marital Status: Divorced
Rebecca Smith
Define Old Dog, new brand Having the personas set, semantic differential scale made, and creative brief written down made designing much easier. I decided I would design packaging for a faux-brand of cast-iron cookware called Old Dog. I created a semantic differential scale showing cast-iron in general versus what traits Old Dog should have. With all this information gathered, I began writing, gathering inspiration, and creating.
intuitive
for serious cooks
anyone can use
high quality
cheap
wasteful
smart
brand new
established
OLD DOG IRONWARE PRODUCT
» New Tricks cast-iron skillets » Nostalgic, versatile, reliable, economic, sustainable
ABOUT PROJECT » Old Dog Ironware (ODI) specializes in vintage castiron cookware that has been reclaimed and restored to the meticulous standards of modern kitchens. » Old Dog products are ready to be introduced into the highly competitive cookware market.
STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
TARGET AUDIENCE
» In addition to its sustainability efforts, Old Dog products have a unique vintage feel that is desirable to both old and young target markets.
» Audiences perceive cast-iron as high maintenance, expensive, more for serious cooks, and yet more desirable than other types of cookware.
» Cast-iron cookware is generally » ODI’s main edge is its reclaimed, market toward the experienced vintage cast-iron cookware. cook, professional or hobbyist. Where other cast-iron is created, » Old Dog’s target audience Old Dog reclaims vintage castis made up of two groups: iron through cleaning, restoring, sustainability-oriented young or re-smelting old, unmarked adults in their 20s to 30s, and cast-iron cookware sourced nostalgia-oriented older adults in locally or in small quantities from their 40s to 60s. individuals. Old Dog restores these vintage items to strict and high modern standards. PERCEPTION
» The main deliverable for this project will be a packaging design » Consumers will choose Old concept for Old Dog’s primary Dog products primarily for line of cast-iron skillets. their durability, and then their economic and sustainable practices.
COMPETITION
» The goal of this packaging is to leave consumers with the impression that Old Dog Ironware products are reliable and sustainably-sourced.
» However, its weakness lies in » Main competitors are castconsumer reluctance to use iron cookware companies CONSIDERATION “another person’s old kitchen Lodge, Finex, and Le Creuset, tools.” Additionally, they are new » Additional design materials among others. Lodge & to the market. needed are a dedicated website, Le Creuset originated in the signage for the specialty kitchen early 1900s. In addition to these » ODI’s competitors are also stores, and an identity system for known for their durable and established companies, there its other cast-iron products. reliable products, and are much have been many new additions to more established within the the cast-iron market since 2010, market; even competitors who including Finex. OTHER MATERIALS have originated within the last » ODI will primarily be seen on its » The packaging of Old Dog’s three years have a competitive web store, and secondarily seen skillets will need to take into edge due to their internet and in the smaller aisles and shelves consideration its presence in market presence. of local and specialty stores. stores, in the warehouse, and when being shipped. Current PRICE POINT standards in the skillet market lean toward stickers and sleeves » Old Dog’s prices range from that allow the product to both small pans around $60.00 USD hang from its handle and stack to larger pans up to $180.00 compactly on display shelves and USD. These prices are not within boxes. high for the market, but may seem so to consumers. It will be important in marketing to inform consumers that the cost is due to the reliability and long life of cast-iron cookware.
Olivia Evans The Happy Camper
• Mid 20s–Early 30s • Works as a wildlife conservation educator • BS Environmental Science • Life goal: hike the Appalachian Trail • “Doesn’t the cold air just make you feel alive?!” • Environmentally conscious: everything she owns is either reusable, recyled, or recyclable • Lives in a spacious studio apartment • Owns multiple reusable water bottles at different sizes • Hiking boot collection is supplemented by Toms and custom Chacos • Definitely a morning person
Joe Rossi
The Practical Hobbyist
• Mid 40s–Early 60s • Happily married to Julia • Is a lead salesman / manager at a local furniture store • Has a high school degree; attended some college • Cooking is his hobby; sometimes relaxing, sometimes adventurous • Loves cooking stir-fry and family Italian recipes • Enjoys a good steak, medium rare. “It shouldn’t need steak sauce” • Small townhouse • Listens to upbeat music while cooking • Charcoal > Propane
Old Dog Ironware design moodboard »
vintage typography (1880s–1910s)
»
vintage photos/illustrations of dogs
»
hounds & terriers; typical "old dogs"
»
serifed typefaces; Garamond,
»
vintage, sturdy, loyal, "the old days"
Baskerville, Bookmania, etc.
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Explore Forced Fit With in-class Forced Fit prompts, we shoved squares into circles to help ideate designs for the packaging in project one. I hoped Forced Fit would help despite initial concerns (how do I combine a board game with skillets and dogs??), but those worries eased up quickly! I generated a couple of ideas I was pretty satisfied with; sleeves shaped like a dog’s face, a dog’s collar, and a dog’s bone were my top three ideas.
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Selecting After making almost a hundred small sections, we divided into groups again and showed each other our favorites from them. I took these and made a few more detailed sketches, looked over them with Leslie, and made a final decision.
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Compose This part was definitely the trickiest for me. I’m super finicky when it comes to what I design, which can be both a good and a bad thing. This time around felt more bad, just because nothing felt quite right despite constant refinement. I started this process by gathering old type specimens and vintage photographs of dogs and compiling them into a moodboard. I knew for the Old Dog logo, the mascot needed to be either a terrier or a hound. I settled on either a Jack Russel or a Scottish terrier, and traced and sketched both.
“ I started... by gathering
old type specimens and vintage photographs of dogs.
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Round 1 This design looked okay. The navy wasn’t working because it was too similar to the black of a cast-iron pan. I really wanted the navy to work because it has connotations of loyalty and being established for me, and combined with a dog, it just worked. However, it didn’t read as collar.
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However, the dog itself I thought looked great. He was already a good boy. He just needed a home that suited him.
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Round 2 I fi xed a lot of things by the time the second group critique came around. In addition to the front, I created the back design featuring text detailing how to clean and how to season a castiron pan. Design-wise, I added a
Cleaning 1. Wash directly after use, before food can harden to the skillet.
2.
rustic orange and kept the navy, as well as adding a dashed line
Wipe food out with a sponge and rinse with hot water. You can use a small amount of plain dish soap for sticky food. NEVER use bleach, hard cleansers, and NEVER place cast-iron in the dishwasher.
to mimic the stitching of a collar.
3.
Dry the skillet thoroughly using paper towels or a dish cloth; wet spots will lead to rust.
The navy still wasn’t looking
4.
Store your skillet in a dry place.
Seasoning 1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. 2.
Make sure the pan is dry, then lightly oil it all over using an unsaturated cooking fat: canola oil, vegetable oil, lard, etc.
3. using a paper towel; the pan should not look oiled. Get everywhere; missed spots may be more prone to rust.
4.
Place skillet upside down in the oven. Bake for 2 hours to set the seasoning. After, remove and let cool on a heat-safe surface.
right, however: see critique on
5.
Repeat steps 2 through 4 a second time, and if desired,
the right.
6.
After this initial seasoning, oil used while cooking will help keep your Old Dog in shape.
Est. 2018 Louisville, KY
Reclaimed & Restored
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Produce Make make make After that critique, I had a much better idea of where Old Dog should be going. I lightened the blue and the orange and emphasized the refurbishment statement more. Pictured is the final design plus its dieline. This was then sent off to Material Print Shop for printing.
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Within the week, I had the prints in hand and ready to trim and assemble! After assembling, I did two things: › I placed the sleeve around a regular 7” pan and passed it around my workplace for consumer feedback › Then, I used that prototype to help create a digital mockup of the sleeve around an actual cast-iron pan.
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Evaluate I collected consumer feedback in two ways. I uploaded the mock-up of the sleeve to social media and asked friends to fill out a semantic differential scale survey and answer a few questions. I also passed the physical skillet around my workplace in Campus Housing and had my coworkers answer the same questions. Additionally, two of these coworkers fit my two personas I developed. The data on the right is quantitative and a mix of both the in-person and the digital semantic differential scale surveys. I received nine total responses. The vertical axis is a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the top quality, 3 5 being the bottom quality, and 3 being the middle of the two. The orange bars show regular answers, while the navy bars mark answers that were in line with my hopeful semantic differential scale.
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What draws you in with this packaging?
“ It’s a collar! “ The colors.
“ The adorable dog & simple design.
“ The little dog.
Who do you think is the target audience?
“ People who care about
the environment but still like to cook.
“ Probably hipsters, but also people who want to take cooking more seriously.
“ Women and
men ages 40+, or campers.
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What appeals to you about this product?
“ The product name is
cute and I like recycled / reclaimed things. It’s sustainable.
“ Instructions for care.
“ The label
makes the item look like its a
classic brand.
“ Old cast-iron is neat
and I feel like it could
be higher quality than current production.
The next spread focuses on two coworkers who happened to align with my personas. Semantic survey responses are marked on a scale of 1 to 5 with navy boxes. Small orange boxes are the targets; the semantics that only have navy boxes show responses where the consumer feedback matched the target response.
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Micahia’s Answers Micahia is in her mid- to late-twenties. She is heavily involved with Campus Housing’s sustainability initiatives.
What draws you in with this packaging design? “The color scheme, I like the orange and black, and its simplicity.” What appeals to you about this product? “The simplicity.” Who do you think is the target audience? “Home cooks.”
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Mark’s Answers Mark is in his forties. While asking him to fill out this survey, I learned that he loved to cook, and was especially experienced with cast-iron pans.
What draws you in with this packaging design? “The circular design, that it’s rounded. I like that it’s not hardedged. Colors are nice, too.” What appeals to you about this product? “It shows the durability and versatility of cast-iron.” Who do you think is the target audience? “Serious cooks like me, forty to fifty years old.”
Research For Project 2, we had a choice between two tasks: we could design three packages for three flavors of an ethnic beverage or condiment, or we could design the packaging for a make-it-yourself meal kit. I wanted to do both, but realized I had some ambitious ideas for the meal kit that would probably be best if I tackled ASAP (and decided that I can do the ethnic condiment packaging as a summer project). So, I dove head-first into researching and assembled a visual inventory of two types of packages. 1) various meal kits purchasable in-store or online, and 2) packaging associated with French-style macaron cookies.
Some thoughts on meal kit packaging: •
Meal kits, online or in-store, generally come in standard cardboard boxes. This is mostly so they can fit their various ingredients.
•
You also can’t ship non-rectangular boxes without putting them in a rectangular box, which limits the form of online-based mealkits.
•
The outer boxes may be branded, but a lot of the branding lies inside the box: on the various ingredients of the meal or on a recipe/ informational card.
•
Most boxes are brown cardboard, with only a few, bright colors printed on the outside.
•
Orange, red, and green dominate the color schemes. Only a few boxes deviate from this.
•
My favorite boxes were the ones with bold, illustrative qualities.
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Some thoughts on macaron packaging: •
These packages are mostly in-store, usually from specialty bakeries. This is probably because macarons are a tricky thing to master.
•
Because they’re tricky to master, they’re usually expensive desserts for most people.
•
Macarons have a delicate, yet luxurious feeling
•
Most of the packaging reflects this; fancy
to them. folding, script lettering, airy white space, thin sans-serifs, didone typefaces, pastels, metallics. •
Other than packaging that holds the macarons in rows, there’s not a standard to their packaging the way there is for meal kits.
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Macaron moodboard As someone who’s very research-oriented and loves to collect things, my mood/inspiration board was eclectic and yet felt united. I focused on French-style macarons (rather than Italian-style), and examined elements of French culture outside of graphic design. I found unexpected inspiration in director Wes Anderson’s set design and the idea of the effortless, minimalist “French Girl” aesthetic in current fashion culture. I also looked at historical French art. •
Wes Anderson set design is meticulously symmetrical, and often dominated by pastels.
•
“The French Girl” is a modern style icon revolving around the concept of the effortlesslychic Parisian woman.
•
Impressionist art has a loose, liberated feel to it; it looks technically messy but is beautiful nonetheless.
•
Art Nouveau and Art Deco both exemplify luxuriousness, but in different ways. Neither are subdued. Art Nouveau is more natural and curvilinear, whereas Art Deco is bold, bright, and geometric.
•
Rococo styles are also luxurious. They are extremely ornamental, similar to Art Nouveau works, but in a loud and theatrical way more reminiscent of Art Deco. Rococo art and architecture is more playful than either, and its tones lean more toward whites and pastels.
Define From my visual inventory and moodboard, I wrote a creative brief diving into my ideas further. This wasn’t required this time around, but having it written out helped me to focus on what the packaging should and shouldn’t be.
MACARONS, MADE FROM SCRATCH
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Cheyenne Nolan ◆ Creative Brief ◆ Spring 2018
Project Purpose
Our Niche
◆ To design a system of packaging for a make-it-yourself macaron “meal” kit, taking into consideration all materials needed to create both the experience and the product.
◆ This from-scratch macaron kit would fill the niche between meal kits and bakeries. Learning to bake them yourself is cheaper than buying from a bakery (in regards to price / volume). Although it may be time-
Current Market
and energy-consuming, it is also
◆ Pre-made macarons bought from a bakery or a store are expensive; you may even have to travel to find them.
offering an experience along with a
◆ Meal kits may offer dessert kits, but no meal kit offers a macaron box, despite the fact that macaron ingredients can be inconvenient to purchase or even difficult to find. ◆ Current “macaron kits” don’t provide ingredients, only tools such as pastry bags and pastry tips. ◆ Macarons are finicky; recipes online vary widely and if you are attempting to bake them yourself, troubleshooting what went wrong with a batch can be as timeconsuming as baking them.
product.
Design Materials ◆ Primary materials to be designed are small packages containing ingredients, as well as the larger overall box that holds them. ◆ Additional materials to be designed are a booklet-type manual that would contain: the recipe; nutritional information; detailed list of ingredients & tools included in the kit as well as tools & ingredients needed; step-by-step instructions that elaborate the recipe; a troubleshooting, tips, & tricks section.
Explore I started my sketches by diagramming everything that the macaron meal kit would need to contain— which was a lot of stuff, if you were to order a starter kit. Things I would have to design were bags for flour and sugar, packaging for flavoring, and the how-to manual that contains the recipe, nutrition, tips and tricks, and even a glossary. I started to explore branding ideas and names for the meal kit; at this point, I didn’t like any of them. However, I fell in love with the single, flourished Ms I drew. I realized I should switch gears and focus on the form of the packaging instead, rather than branding. I had a few different ideas for boxes, most of them rectangular with one shaped like a round hat box. I also sketched different forms for the kit’s flour bags and food coloring bottle.
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Compose Initial composition After settling on the shape of packaging I would use, I started creating the assets for the packaging. I created watercolor illustrations for the flavoring ingredients of two different macaron recipes; salted bourbon caramel and orangevanilla creamsicle. I painted them and scanned them in, converted them into separate PSDs with transparent backgrounds, and arranged them into patterns using Adobe Illustrator. At this point, I was torn between having the pattern printed directly onto the inside of the box or having it printed on the protective tissue paper. In the meantime, for the critique, I showed a fl at composition of the pattern, overlaid with a solid color scalloped circle that contained a flourished M. I also decided on the name “MAKEaron� and included logotype options in this critique, separate from the design of the box I was showing.
**Note: my bourbon barrels did not make the cut.
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Feedback: Round 1 I showed two options for the flourished M: one where the left, main stroke had outward curls on the top and bottom; and another where the left, inner stroke extended into a swash on the inside and outside. The general feedback was YES to the watercolor illustrations, and extremely mixed feedback regarding the Ms. People were torn between them, but very slightly preferred the M with the altered left, main stroke.
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Refining the composition With that feedback, I took my branding and packaging further. I created a mock-up of the box. The packaging is white on the outside with a colored sleeve that has the brand name in a scalloped container; it also now has a tag-line, to clarify what is in the packaging. I retained the scalloped container with an M from the first round of critique but decided it had better use as an emblem or sticker on the interior packaging. I had two options: a version where the interior of the box is patterned and the tissue paper colored, and a version where they are switched.
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Feedback: Round 2 One of the things I wanted the box to do was surprise and delight; I made the exterior of the box simple so that the watercolor patterns of the tissue paper would excite whoever opened the box and clue them into what flavor of macarons they would be baking. A handful of people wanted to see the patterns on the outside to make the overall package a little more exciting, and I did wrestle with that idea, but ultimately decided not to. Later, I may play with the idea of changing the sleeve to have a watercolor texture. When surveyed at this point, most of the class thought I was close to being finished with the design.
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make ma
ke your macaro
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make your own macarons
r own ons
make your own macarons
Evaluate With that final round-robin critique, I made a few alterations to my box. I also created a mock-up for the almond flour/powdered sugar bags that the meal kit would contain. Overall, I’m fairly satisfied with how the project turned out for its final presentation—though I do have a lot of work to put into it over the summer. It needs the rest of its interior packaging designed, including food coloring, a jar for the flavorings, and the how-to booklet. It also desperately needs a web presence, as there should definitely be pictures of macarons somewhere and they have no place in the box, except for in the (currently) un-designed how-to booklet. There’s lots of work to be done, but it’ll be fun to do it!