Exercise Packaging

Taking the biscuit

In store and online 'hands on' research would suggest that in general red is used a lot in the design of biscuit packaging. Whether. It's background, graphics or font there always seems to be a bit of red somewhere.

The few exceptions appear to be because blue and green seem to be used when the item is marketed as a more healthy option or 'lite' version. Or in some cases where the biscuit is not the healthy option the marketing people have seen that to stand out on the shelves avoid red.

Perhaps for an explanation of why all this reliance on specific colours is so, It's probably time for the colour emotion guide

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The extinct animals I have chosen to start with are the Dodo and the Mammoth. Later on I chose the Iguanodon as the third

I found various images of each creature but my key reference are these:

Part of the reason for choosing these images in particular was the siting of the biscuit. I am keen that there is a direct contact between the character and the biscuit image i.e. that the animal can be seen holding the biscuit in some way. I have been giving this some thought as I did the visual research

I thought that the Dodo could hold the biscuit in its beak. The tusks on the mammoth appear equally convenient.

Next I practised sketching from some of the reference images

And a few more with some alternative biscuit positions

And a larger pen sketch of the Dodo with a biscuit tucked behind its wing.

I am going to take this idea forward into my 'thumbnail' designs ideas.

Now I am switching to the third, as yet neglected, creature. The Iguanadon

Currently I have placed it on top of the biscuit

Now for some design ideas to take to visuals

Prior to completing visuals I had a look at some font styles

These are Caveman and Caveman Rustic,easily rendered by hand which also adds to the prehistoric look. I copied from an on screen sheet of examples on to tracing paper. The idea being that I could lay the text over the design for repositioning.

Here are the fonts used for the Dodo design

Here are my client visuals

As can be seen by this time I had changed where the biscuit would show on the lizard design I think it is more in keeping with the notion that the biscuit is being presented to the consumer by the creature.

The font used on the Mammoth design is yet another font called Caveman. I have decided that my mock up will be based on the Mammoth Chocolate Chip biscuit packaging.

Design point; From looking around the supermarket I would say that most biscuit packaging design even for children, is done on a simple very graphical basis

So its seems a valid objective to fall in line with this style, whilst maintaining the essence of the visuals.

I made several attempts to create a landscape. I looked at Adobe Illustrator, but even a crash course wouldn't equip me with the technical skills required, so went back the photoshop. I Created

To be honest I think its rubbish...But decided to try it as the basis of the mockup

Version 1

I noticed that the resolution was not right and there are elements that I am not happy with.I put the design together again the following day

As I had started from scratch I played about with the background landscape and a couple of other design elements.

It was then that in experimenting with filters etc that I tried a layer style at random and completely covered the landscape in a single colour; mmm lots of red

it certainly has impact and I quite liked it; this may represent a dramatic shift away from the original design but I thought it worth pursuing. So using a finished biscuit box created a mockup using photo inkjet paper after adding some extra cave painting figures.

Here is the mock up of my original idea, just for comparison.

It actually works quite well. If I add the word 'Cookies' in the brown splodge, which incidently I kept because it looked like a cave, i think we have the basis of a competent design

Post exercise comment; Did I really need to move away from the completely hand painted look of the visuals? I felt at the time that there was so few examples of that style on packaging that it was best to 'go with the flow' as it were. As with all the last few exercises I feel that this one again has highlighted to me my own areas of design deficiency, areas where I feel I can improve but just don't get the time and sometimes the inclination to do the experimenting required