PROCESS BOOK | PROJECT 3 | HOM HO
3.31.2015
PROCESS BOOK | BRIEF + THOUGHTS | HOM HO
PROJECT 3:
THOUGHTS
Label System: Build a label system for an assigned product. Come up with client name, three to five labels, and photograph the product.
I always knew the graphic design major was tough and demanded a lot. I’m sitting in my room at five in the morning trying to finish this process book, after a back to back all nighter. Scratching my head to figure out what I need to write. So here’s to a semi-unfiltered thought process of Project 3.
PRODUCT:
DRY RUB I literally had no clue what dry rub was after it was chosen for me. I tried to trade the product with someone else but no one wanted my mysterious product. After some research, dry rub is basically spices rubbed onto meat to give it some added flavor. There’s a whole Wikipedia page about dry rub (spice rub) and some other pages about American barbeque that I read to further explore the world of dry rub.
PROCESS BOOK | RESEARCH | HOM HO
RESEARCH Reading online articles, looking at pictures associated with the topic at hand, and speaking to others about said topic can lead to good design directions, which for me, is all part of how important the research stage is. The more I know about the subject, the stronger the graphic design solution I can come up with. After the first package project, I learned to compare competitors and see what in their graphic design works and what doesn’t. There were the basic requirements to good product design, hierarchy of information, contrast between elements, and a cohesive composition of elements that makes it memorable. These competitors had the information about their product down but really lacked a strong visual identity. This was something I wanted to focus on for my design of my brand of dry rub.
Some inspiration for this project. It’s always amazing what keeping focus and sacrifice can achieve.
PROJECT 3 | LABEL SYSTEM
PROCESS BOOK | RESEARCH | HOM HO
RESEARCH
HOM HO | 2-23-2015 | VERSION 1
DRY RUB COMPETITORS
1. Cook’s Choice Rib Seasoning Dry Rub $11.09 –Amazon.com 2. Char Crust Dry Rub Seasoning Roasted Garlic Peppercorn 4 Oz. Pack of 6 – $29.99 –Amazon 3. Woody’s Bar-B-Q Dry Rub and Seasoning 22 Oz. –$24.89 –Amazon 4. Old Bay Seasoning – For Seafood, Poultry, Salads, Meats 6 Oz. –$3.48 – Amazon 5. Blues Hog – Dry Rub Seasoning 5.5 Oz. – $8.31 –Amazon, Ebay 6. Weber – Classic BBQ Dry Rubs 3.25 Oz. (6 Pack) –$16.08 –Walmart 7. Chefs –Espresso Spice Blend & Dry Rub 7 Oz. – $14.95 8. Salt Lick – Original Dry Rub Seasoning 12Oz. –$13.89 9. Jack Daniel’s – Steak Seasoning 10.25 Oz. –$12.99 10. Chili Lime – Rub 3 Oz. –$10.95 11. Smokehouse – Rub 3 Oz. –$10.95
POSSIBLE NAMES
1. Charlotte’s 2. Bobby’s 3. Blue Ridge Mountains (BRM) 4. New River 5. Blacksburg – The Burg’ 6. The Kings 7. Peggy’s 8. Sugarfoot 9. Peg Leg 10. Goodman’s 11. Chamberlain Brothers 12. Buck’s 13. Gribble’s 14. Alvin’s 15. Dauterive 16. Lucky’s 17. Little Rock 18. Hoyt Platter’s 19. Mee-Maw’s 20. Joe Jack 21. Stinky’s 22. Whichard 23. Buckley’s 24. Ray Roy 25. Eustace
THREE ITEMS IN PRODUCT LINE
1. BBQ Sauce 2. Hot Sauce 3. Seasoning Highlight the natural flavors already present in a great steak. 4. Marinades To add flavor and also to tenderize.
As I went through the process of coming up with names and themes for my brand of dry rub, I was watching King of the Hill and there were a lot of interesting names that could fit what I wanted. Sugarfoot eventually was chosen since it had some personality to it and after some initial ideas of who/what Sugarfoot, it became the basis of my design. Adventure. Passion. Culture. A tale driven by the ruthlessness of the Wild West, endured and survived by the retelling of those whom he helped. Sugarfoot embodies the spirit of a young nation. One with a big heart and a passion to contribute for progress. Later changed to: Sugarfoot was as spirited as the young nation he came from. Prideful as that of Kansas City, soulful as Memphis, and as big in personality as they come. Sugarfoot’s adventures have given way to Sugarfoot’s Dry Rub, an adventurous and memorable taste.
PROCESS BOOK | CONTAINERS | HOM HO
CONTAINERS Initial ideas on what container to use for Sugarfoot dry rub. I ended up using a mason jar since it would’ve been appropriate for this time and it was pratical for what I wanted.
PROCESS BOOK | THUMBNAILS | HOM HO
THUMBNAILS 30 thumbnails (or more) to get a general idea on the visuals for the final direction.
PROCESS BOOK | THUMBNAILS | HOM HO
THUMBNAILS With these thumbnails, I touched on something that really sparked the art direction for this project. The idea that Sugarfoot is an adventurer with a taste for great food, a sort of folk tale– with its exaggerated characteristics and tales. The narrative provided some backdrop to tie the viewer in and gave a stronger visual design since the visuals needed to be precise. I’m really happy with this step and the following that came from it.
PROCESS BOOK | SKETCHES | HOM HO
SKETCHES These sketches gave way to a more refined concept visually and allowed me to narrow in on exactly what my goals were. Which were to capture a small bit of the adventurous Wild West visually and present a sort of visual narrative. The advantage of this over current competitors is that it lets the audience immerse themselves in the historic times/events of the period.
PROCESS BOOK | DIGITAL | HOM HO
DIGITAL Initial pencil sketches giving me a general idea what the final will look like.
One of my favorite tools besides the pencil and paper is tracing paper. When I come up with initial sketches, there’s times that I don’t want to remake it, I’ll use tracing paper to add to the initial sketch – this saves times and it’s just a practical thing to do.
PROCESS BOOK | DIGITAL | HOM HO
DIGITAL My trusty Wacom tablet and me on a week night. The pencil sketches changed quite a bit when I went digital, some of the linework wasn’t working and color and style of coloring affected too many things. The “spirit” of the pencil sketch remains but required a lot of changes.
PROCESS BOOK | DIGITAL | HOM HO
DIGITAL Some exploration with the label and logo design. The typeface was difficult to decide on and needed many versions before I decided on one. This particular stage gave me the most headaches, it didn’t seem like anything I was doing made sense and I had to keep restarting. Eventually it was best to stop and rethink. This allow me to go in a different direction with a smaller emphasis on freehand illustration/coloring work and concentrate on a more symmetrical, geometric pattern design. This actually worked out and I was quite thrilled with it.
PROCESS BOOK | DIGITAL | HOM HO
DIGITAL Redesign of the label with more geometrical, symmetrical designwork instead of the initial illustration direction. The three flavors came to life from the research I did a few steps back, Texas big, Kansas City Pride, and Memphis Soul. The names associated with the cities describe both the flavor and culture behind it.
PROCESS BOOK | DIGITAL | HOM HO
DIGITAL I finally got something that I was happy with. Time to refine it and add more details. Images show the process for picking a typeface and setting up composition and textures..
It took way more than two cans of Monster energy drinks to build this project, way more.
PROCESS BOOK | DIGITAL | HOM HO
DIGITAL Some exploration with smaller concepts such as adding maps and writing copy.
PROCESS BOOK | EXTRAS | HOM HO
EXTRAS PART 1 Printing to see quality and any other changes I want for the final build.
Dry rub is relatively inexpensive but trying to fill three large mason jars with it wasn’t cost prohibitive. So I decided to use seasoned salt and mix it with other spices to get the same look as if I were to buy real dry rub.
PROCESS BOOK | EXTRAS | HOM HO
EXTRAS PART 2 I mixed the different colored season salts to try and imitate a level of spiciness and reflect back on the three different flavors. The style of photography needed to reflect the rustic type, sort of grounded to the West aesthetics so the photographs tend to be a bit dark with a wooden backdrop for presentation.
PROCESS BOOK | EXTRAS | HOM HO
EXTRAS PART 3 My cue to stop photographing. I took over 300 photos with different light settings to try and imitate the historic period of the 1900’s. Around the two hour mark, I think my camera was telling me to stop.
PROCESS BOOK | FINAL THOUGHTS | HOM HO
FINAL THOUGHTS ON THIS PROJECT I personally had fun with this project but I just wish we had more time for the execution of the project. The pace picked up quite quickly after thumbnails and sketches, I had trouble keeping up since my designs required a lot more time due to the delicate, detailed nature of it. There were some other things I wanted to try, like different materials for printing, laser engraving but time keeps catching up to me and I didn’t want to miss the deadline. There’s always time in the future to go back and attend to these problems but I rather focus on the project in the current time rather than later since everything’s still fresh on my mind. This was definitely a challenging project to tackle, the many steps and the many extra things to think about, like the physicality of putting the project together. I look forward to your feedback.
THANKS FOR READING.
PROCESS BOOK | LAST PAGE | HOM HO