Product design
This was a multi-part project in Design class. We started by coming up with an original product idea. I came up with a fruit juice and tea drink called Fru-Tea. We created a logo for the product, then a label and magazine ad.
I created this moodboard for the branding. It has a few font ideas, my color pallete, and some images for inspiration. I used this to explore the general “vibe” I wanted to create with the branding. I wanted it to be colorful and energizing, since it’s meant to be a healtheir source of caffeine.
Here is the final logo I created for my product. It features bright colors and a dramatic splash for an upbeat look. I made this in Adobe Illustrate. After creating the orange slice, I used the “envelope distort” function of Illustrate to warp the letters into the orange sections. I had actually create a very simple version of the logo initially and moved onto the label creation, but I ended up going back and revising it. I rotated it and added the splash for a more dynamic look, and added gradients to make it visually interesting and better resemble the logo of other beverages
This is the label I created for the can of my beverage in the strawberry flavor. After making a sketch on one of the iPads, I put it in Illustrate to start making the final design. I spent a lot of time making sure that the splashes at the bottom had a good flow and looked dynamic. I used a lot of the same design aspects as the logo, such as splashes and bright colors. The finishing touches before I created a mockup were the gradient background and the bubbles.
Artist Statement
This is a can label for my imagined product, Fru-Tea. Fru-Tea is a canned drink that consists of tea and fruit juice. I came up with this product idea as a healthier alternative to energy drinks, since it has real tea and real fruit in it. I chose to use bright colors that feel energizing and that look like vibrant fruits in my design. Sticking with this idea, I also included imagery of splashes and fruits on the logo and label design.
Before I made the label, I created the logo. I started with some sketches of my concepts on paper, before making my favorite digitally in Adobe Illustrate. To create the label, I started with a digital sketch that I recreated in Adobe Illustrate. Partway through the process, I decided to rework the logo a bit. I added gradients to give it some dimension and to match the style of the can, and added the splashes to give it a more dynamic feeling. Overall, these changes helped it feel a lot more distinct as a logo.
Finally, I created this magazine article in InDesign. I masked out the mockup to incorporate it into the design. Like with the label, I made sure to keep a consistent design style throughout the ad. I looked at a lot of magazine ads for layout inspiration and ideas on what to include. I decided to include a message/question in the ad. I chose “ready for a fresh start?” because it sort of has two meanings. In the literal sense, it signifies how the drink will be a good, energizing start to your day with caffeine and real fruit + tea. However, it also represents how its a “fresh start” in terms of being an energy drink. It’s a healthier alternative that allows consumers to get a fresh start on their caffeine habits. I also think it’s powerful to have a rhetorical question in the ad, since it invited viewers to find the answer for themselves by purchasing the product. While designing, I made sure to pay attention to visual hierarchy and ensured that the design would flow well
It was very long, but I had a lot of fun during this project. I got to use a lot of bright colors which I really liked. Throughout the process, I got to put a lot of design fundamentals into practice and learned a lot about how I can improve upon my work. At first, I made everything super simple because I though it was necessary for an effective design. However, I found a lot of success in adding additional details to my designs that made them feel more distinctive and interesting.
Worldbuilding Movie Poster
Near the end of the worldbuilding project, we got the chance to extend it into Design class by creating a concept movie poster for our story. Since we had been working on it for so long, I felt pretty confident in visually representing our worldbuilding story in a visual manner. My two groupmates Griffin and Josheline are also design students, so it was cool to see how we took this project in different ways
Like with the product design, I created this moodboard to find inspiration for the poster. For the poster, I really wanted to use a surreal aesthetic and highlight the parts of our story that have a more modern look. I chose cool colors and a simple font to mirror some of the posters I used for inspiration. However, I knew I would want to use a few pops of brighter colors.
Here’s the final movie poster I created. I’m quite happy with it, and I’m surprised by how much it looks like a real movie poster.
I’m very confident in my Photoshop skills, so I was ready to jump right into this project after creating the moodboard. I started with the large building that’s the main element of the design. I masked out a stock photo of a building and used some filters to make it look smoother. To create the glass shards, I cut out stock photos of shattered glass and overlayed images representing various scenes of the story. I used the “bevel and emboss” layer style to make them look more like real glass. I also used the transform tool to warp them in perspective. I created the fog by rendering clouds in Photoshop and masking out parts of the image with a soft brush
Artist Statement
Our story takes place in a world where a magical form of energy can be drawn from beyond a mysterious barrier called “The Veil.” In the story, our three characters work together to stop the corporation IDEA’s dangerous plan to draw large amounts of energy during a yearly festival. My movie poster does not depict a specific scene from the story, although the images in the glass shards all represent events from the story.
I created this movie poster in Photoshop. I began by creating the main element of my design, the shattered building. I chose a stock photo of a building and masked out the background, then used layer modes to overlay a shattered glass image. Then, I used the polygonal lasso tool to separate the building along the lines of the shattered glass and transformed the sections in various ways. I used a similar technique to create the three large shards seen flying around the composition. After I had created all of the shards, I used the bevel and emboss layer style to make them look more 3D and glass-like. To create the background and haze, I used the “render clouds” option in Photoshop found in the filters menu. I also blurred the clouds and added colors with a gradient overlay. I made the image hazy by duplicating the background layer, lowering its opacity, and using a layered mask with a soft brush to erase parts of it. I put this layer on top of all the elements. I created the title by masking another duplicate of the background at full opacity to the text, then adding the same glassy bevel and emboss that I used on the shards. Finally, I added my tagline and the credit block.
Reflection
These two projects gave me a really good chance to put some of my pre-existing design skills into practice. They were very independent, which gave me a great chance to explore my own design preferences. I got the chance to expand on some of the things I’ve practiced in other projects, such as branding and using Photoshop.