Project 02
the process
Lauren Fox
Word + Image I
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Reflection on Practice
research
Lauren Fox
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After collecting a plethora of pictures of tea packaging I found around campus or in grocery stores and cafes, I moved my research to the library. I looked through a variety of resources such as books about packaging design and patterns as well as magazines and more. I scanned a multitude of graphics to use for my design ideation. In class, everyone consolidated their research and indentified trends that exist within different types of tea packaging: discount, medicinal, high end and international tea. My team was assigned discount tea and we collaborated to come up with a brand name and brand guidelines. We decided to name our discount tea company Buzz which is a collection of low end caffeinated teas.
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Reflection on Practice
Exploring typefaces to use in my design. I looked into both serif and sans serif typefaces and experimented with them by setting my team’s company name, buzz, in a wide array of options.
buzz
buzz
garamond, 36pt
helvetica neue, 36pt
buzz
buzz
gill sans, 36pt
didot regular, 36pt
buzz trade gothic, 36pt
buzz univers, 36pt
buzz futura, 36pt
buzz franklin gothic, 36pt
Lauren Fox
Grayscale scans of a variety of patterns found in different books and magazines in the library.
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Reflection on Practice
discovery
Lauren Fox
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After completing extensive research of existing tea packaging and branding design, I began working on my own design. I started by creating low fidelity iterations in class through methods such as collage and sketching. After experimenting with low fidelity prototypes, I began working digitally and started playing with color and a multitude of different designs. While working digitally significantly increased my working speed, I found it necessary to print out and fold many of my iterations in order to understand the design. Making quick mockups of the tea box was an extremely helpful method for me in the discovery phase of this project.
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Reflection on Practice
Lauren Fox
Rapid prototyping with sketches and low fidelity mockups.
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Reflection on Practice
Lauren Fox
Early digital prototypes for the second in class process critque.
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Reflection on Practice
refinement
Lauren Fox
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During our early process critiques, people were particularly concerned with the layout of my box. I was told that it was hard to determine the front face of the box and therefore, determine the correct orientation of the box. I received good feedback regarding my chosen typeface, Gill Sans, and other specific design elements. With this feedback in mind, I altered my design and decided to create a logo to make the package easier to find in the midst of a crowded shelf. At this point, the refinement process proved to be the most difficult of my design process thus far. I ended up getting stuck on an extremely simple design that was not very successful.
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Reflection on Practice
Lauren Fox
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Reflection on Practice
Lauren Fox
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I began to start developping a system with this very simple, clean design. Although, it was at this point in the project that I started to rethink my design. I found this design to be overly simplistic and much of the critique I received was in line with my own beliefs. The design was so simple that it was too difficult to tell which side of the box was the front, this is something that drove my redesign process. I also wanted to have more visual interest overall. I worked on adding visual interest by updating the logo and playing around with color as well as scale and contrast.
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Reflection on Practice
final design In my final design, I incorporated many of the elements that proved to be most successful in my previous iterations, such as using icons and repeating a logo, while creating a clearer layout. By adding lighter rectangles on the front face and side faces it is a lot easier to determine which face is the front. Additionally, the box has better contrast overall by incorporating a darker tone on two sides of the box. Lastly, I added an accent color to increase visual interest.
Lauren Fox
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Reflection on Practice
Lauren Fox
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Reflection on Practice
Lauren Fox
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Reflection on Practice
Lauren Fox
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Reflection on Practice
critique
Lauren Fox
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I am happy with the outcome of my tea packaging design, however I would have liked to receive some final feedback at the end of the project. Looking back on my process, I was surprised to see how much influence my early iterations had on my final design. While my final design is quite different than any of my early iterations there are many elements in my final design that came from some of my earliest designs. However, I would have liked to spend more some time exploring elements such as color and material. In the future, it would be interesting to expand the project and make it more branding focused. Thinking about packaging design in terms of a system rather than a singular package may be a good approach to packaging design.
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Reflection on Practice
This book was written and designed by Lauren Fox during her sophomore year in Word and Image Design I at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.