New camera has arrived!

The quality of the photos on this blog will be vastly improved as i have just recieved my Canon 40D!

Picked up second hand and can't wait to go Urbex'ing to get some arty shots.
I also need to pick u a 50mm macro lens to take some proper images of all my toy prototypes.

Alphonse Mucha is awesome

Ever since i was young i have admired Alphonse Mucha, definately one of my favourite artists.

I realise that the best way to admire an artist is not to butcher one of their pieces but i thought i would give it a go anyway:

This will be scanned in and painted in photoshop to go on my wall.

Traced it to make a quick colour test using Copic markers:

Hopefully i can get this worked out digitally over the weekend so i will have something a bit better to show you.

Just a little thing i made :)

Just wandering through newcastle a few weeks ago i spotted this piece of graffiti:

As soon as i saw it i realised how cool this would look as a toy so i decided to sketch up a mesh, adding a few tweaks to make it mine:

(sorry about the bad phone pic)

And got to work rolling out an egg with Super Sculpy:

Which became this:

The green pieces are made with Green Stuff which is a bit easier to work smooth.

The finished prototype:

Abit rough thanks to the spraypaint not being fit for purpose. Luckily it sands down really well so once i decide what to mold it with i can give it a slightly better finish.

There is something so much more satisfying than working digitally when you actually get your hands dirty.

As an aside...

Scanner is still broken :(

But here is a quick side project i am working on for a friend.

My flatmate drew this to get tattooed and i couldn't let him go with just a sketch:

Original

Haven't finished sorting out yet but this is how far i have gotten fixing the outlines:

The stained glass is tomorrow mornings TTD as i am beginning to get square eyes lol

Eventually the line work will be sorted out and the stained glass sections will be coloured and textured. Not my cup of tea but if it keeps the flatmate happy...

Just a quicky

Just a quick update. I promised regular updates to the blog but that didn't last long :(
I will be back to full speed now that most of the things i am doing are digital as my home scanner died an inglorious death.

Our first brief has been a packaging design project.

I chose phonica records mail order service phonicarecords.com/ and got to work.

The actual packaging design i had planned in my head appears to be a bit too complex but i will have ideas to post this week that should give you an idea of what i am doing.


In the mean time here is version 1 of a repeat pattern for some packing tape i am trying to get printed for the project :)

Edit: That image is practically invisible... Should have thought about that first.

Here is a better one.

Not perfect i know, I have a grid set u which resolves the 'wonky circles' issue but i really wanted to post something tonight.

Because i want to....

One of the big challenges this year is learning new software. I picked up a copy of the Cinema 4D Cookbook by Micheal Szabo and have been (slowly) working through the tasks.
Unfortunately i was not up to the right level to produce a complete 3d representation of my final design for the coffee packaging but here is how far i got. My first 3d model from scratch :)

Trying to learn C4D? buy this book: Cinema 4D cookbook by Micheal Szabo

Ooh! cardboard

Sustainability. This is one of the brand's main key words. The original packaging was all about the plastic. Wether it be bio-degradeable or not, no one would consider plastic to be ecological at first glance.

Treated cardboard is much more environmentally friendly, or atleast, appears to be more environmentally friendly. It also reinforces the comparison between the product and fresh coffee bought at a cafe or coffee shop.

I used exactly the same layout as the other design but switched the background with this raw cardboard effect. Ideally the design would be printed directly onto the packaging to completely remove plastic from the equation.

Final design P1

Ta-da!

Now, a little thing to explain first. Originally my group partner was going to do some simple pencil and watercolour sketches to go with this showing rustic coffee been picking to reflect the brand's ideal of well sourced ingredients but due to the weather he was not in class as often as we would have liked.

Hence the minimal design.

However i am quietly pleased with the outcome. Simplicity works with this product.

All of the necessary information is on the design but it is not too bold. From a distance the packaging looks like coffee without too much interferance.
Ideally i would like to revisit the logo to make it stand out a little more but i will possibly look into this in my own time.

Through the coffee cup

Really simple background using an image of coffee in a glass for the foam and a quick(time's a factor) PS airbrush to give the flat brown a touch more depth.
I was trying to make the product look more natural and nothing looks more natural than no packaging at all right?

I know this is almost exactly the same as the background on the original design but like i said, it was nearly there. A little lighter colouring and a small amount of depth really improve the design and make it more appealing and much less generic.

I hoe you can see why the lid was abit wierd? together with this background it should give the impression of transparency.

As an aside, i got the inspiration from a beautiful piece of design on Lovely Package.com tha can be seen here: http://lovelypackage.com/naked-beer/

A new lid

Actually really proud of this. I did a quick redesign of the logo to give it a more modern (but rustic) hand stamped look to inject a bit of class and simplified the drinking instructions right down to the minimum. Looking at it now i should really have them at 6 to 9 rather than 3 to 6 but i was under a bit of pressure at this stage.

Use an image of coffee foam to tie in with the rest of the redesign and also to give the buyer a representation of what lies within. The actual contents don't look this desirable.

The pull tab is just a simple coffee colour to make it clearly visible.

When put together with the rest of the design i feel it works although i would like to spend a bit more time redesigning the drinking instructions to make them more interesting.

Here is the simplified logo for the packaging. I appreciate it is a bit of a hack job and the typefaces don't work aswell together as i would like but i did not get to take the time i would like to quality check it. The drop shadow and degredation near more work. It is oodles better than the original though.

A new year, a simple task

First task of the new year. To redesign a tired or badly designed piece of packaging in a week. This was meant to be a group task but due to the terrible weather last week i'm left holding the baby.

We picked this instant coffee drink simply because of the tired and generic European style. I am pretty sure almost all continental companies use the same templates for their products? Anyway...

This packaging is almost there but it just needs a little modernising.

Here is a better look at the current packaging. Fairly uninspiring eh? It also fall short of the brands attempts at being sustainable and doesn't really hit the target customer base. A few small changes should make the product apear more ecologically sound.

Last but not least, the competitors. Starbucks are (unsurprisingly) ahead of the curve here but most of their designs success is the simplicity they can afford to use thanks to their easily identifiable logo.