Showcase Posters

So we're suppose to choose our two best pieces and make them into 13 x 19" posters to submit to showcase. I think my two best pieces are definitely my Type Specimen Book and my Package Design. I never felt that my Infographics worked, lol.

I know these look more like spreads, but I just didn't think the vertical format worked that well. Or maybe I've just been thinking too much about portfolio review?

I know the package design is missing the base and casing, but I didn't really have time to get the plastic cutter to cut the plexi glass that I bought.

Not feeling too sure about these posters. Hopefully they're okay.

Package Design - Products & Photos

Took a couple of photos of the outer box for my Daifuku trio. I tried photographing the stuff at 3 different angles each for the most part. Below are the results. (I'm kinda liking the idea of trio, even though taking 3 angles each was an accident.)

This was my first attempt at the outer package using styrene plastic. Turned out that I didn't really need to round the insides where the Daifuku packages would sit. Styrene was a little more time consuming and expensive than just cardboard anyways.

Final product using black cardboard assembled together with jade glue. The pattern was printed on a separate sheet of paper and then glued on to the cardboard on the bottom. The dividers were added afterwards, and of course the triangular shapes (there to stop the Daifuku packages from sliding off) were added last. I would call this just a prototype, but I can "make" the final product in Photoshop or Illustrator with the aid of photo references.

The Daifuku packages sitting inside of the outer box (or just the base at the moment). Just 3 more ordinary angles of shooting.

I also tried photographing at something like a frontal view and 3/4 view. I had the camera sit on the table that is.

Some close-ups. I wish I thought about photographing this in a way such that I can make it into a panorama, but too late for now. Maybe I'll do it when I come back from Thanksgiving break.
 

More close-ups. This time it's the frontal and 3/4 view with the camera on the table again.

The Daifuku packages before folding. Kinda liking the dramatic angle of the 3rd photo.

Another close-up. This time only one photo because the other one turned out bad.

The inside of the Daifuku packages. Four different angles took, and I guess all four were okay, so I decided I'd post them all anyways.

Now I just need to make the transparent plastic case and I think I'd be done! Too bad I'll have to do that after Friday.

Package Design - Fruit Icons

I don't know what got to me. I do remember there was a suggestion about including a fruit icon or something inside of the smaller packages, but I went ahead to create something that was more stylized...

Better with expression or no expression?

Either way, I still kept the shape of the Daifuku in mind while making these. The round shape is the same as the "ro" Katakana character used in the logos. To keep the icons consistent and related, I just gave each one a little "hair style" I guess. Hopefully they still look like the fruits they're suppose to be, no matter how weird they might appear to be.

I'll probably put them on the bottom of the inside of the box, as a little surprise factor.

Package Design - Photographs out of Boredom

Some samples of the mini Daifuku packages before I move on to the next stage to decorate the inside.

Two photos of the packages lined up. I wanted to see for myself how the larger package that "packs" these will work out. I'm glad I tested it. Originally I was thinking about going with the 2nd photo, but I realized that they don't really go side-by-side well that way. Would be nice if they did though. In any case, since it seems that I'm going with the first photo now, I might have to change the type placement on the larger package based off of my idea from the previous entry, or maybe I could just get away with no type on the larger package since the smaller packages will have them shown towards the viewer?

This is just a random thing I did. I stacked them up. Might turn out to be a concept, but nothing springs to mind at the moment.

Three photos of the two versions of each of the flavors side-by-side. Obviously by the color, the pink one is strawberry, the orange one is orange, and the green one is melon. I'm most likely going with the ones on the left hand side simply because the tiny English type prints out better that way. I guess both version are fine, so going with the one with less problems would be better.

Package Design - Outer Box

I don't think I'll be able to build these with the little amount of time that I have, but below are two ideas for the outer package for the little Daifuku packages.

The idea for both is that each of these larger packages will hold 6 of the smaller ones. Both of these larger packages utilize transparent plastic. I'm kinda liking the second idea better because it's simpler and more roundish, relating more to the concept. I also feel that if I went with the first one, more type or image would be necessary since it feels pretty blank. Somehow the second one just feels more complete to me, even though there's hardly any type on it. Perhaps it's because it looks kinda like a display case? Or maybe it's the more unique shape when compared to a traditional box?

Type Specimen Book - Quick Update

Just an update on my Type Specimen Book. The Introduction and Citation spreads felt out of place, so I redid them both.

Just straight forward white drop out text on black background.

Package Design - Prototype

Just a few quick snapshots of my progress. I spent a few hours of trial and error, trying to get the shape of the prototype just about correct. Here is the final result.

A photo of the package opened up.

3 photos of the package when in shape and looked at from different angles.

Package Design - Experiment 2

I tried out what I felt might be the way to solve the tracking problem. Below are three color variations to the same composition.

I doubled the size of the Japanese "Daifuku" text, thus allowing some more space to track out the English "Daifuku" text. Tracking is probably not perfect at the moment 'cause I'm more interested in getting the general composition right.

For the first one... now that I uploaded it, I see that the black text is a little heavy when compared to the light colors of the flavors. Perhaps I should make the black text light gray or something.

The second one is basically making the "Daifuku" part outlined text, such that the text is white when working on a white background. Problem is that the outline feels out of place. I kinda like it better when it's just solid vector graphics anyways.

The third one is with a black background. Everything becomes easy to read and even the "Daifuku" part feels fitting because Daifuku are white. However... that means the package itself would become something like a black Daifuku (if I go with the round package in my sketch), which is not what a Daifuku is. Could work with a traditional box, but I suppose I want the package to be more "fun" and "unique".

== edit ==

Here is a version with gray Daifuku text on white background.

Feels much better I think. It's softer in any case, like how a Daifuku is. I'm just not sure if plain gray is "the solution", since it still feels a tad bit off to me.

Package Design - Experimenting

Continuing with the logo, I spent a few hours rendering out each necessary Japanese character that I will and/or might end up using. I thought about using the English versions, but somehow the Japanese text intrigued me more, so I went with the Japanese text.

Below is something like a character chart.

The top row are the Kanji for "Daifukumochi". I made two version for the Kanji "Dai" though, since I felt that if I wanted to use the Kanji "mochi" as well, the "Dai" would have to relate more to "mochi" with the thinner and more defined forms. If I don't end up using "mochi", then I suppose the original "Dai" depicted in my sketches would be perfectly fine. I also went ahead to render the text for alternative ways to say "strawberry" and "orange" in Japanese, just in case they might serve the purpose better.

Next, I proceeded to test them out. Since I know people won't be able to read Japanese, I'm pretty sure it would be necessary and a good idea to add some kind of English translation in there. Basically, I was thinking that if people can't read Japanese, they can at least see the roundish text as an image related to Daifuku, and then see the English text as the typography, even though both are typography.

I know the typography is kinda bad at the moment, but these are just experiments seeing how the text work with each other. It seems that if I used the full name "Daifukumochi", the English text would then be very crammed, and I guess the addition of "mochi" just makes everything too text heavy. To keep the simplicity in mind, I think the version without "mochi" is cleaner and easier to view. Now the problem comes with the English text. I think it would be nice if the English "Daifuku" text could be tracked out similarly to the flavors, except there's no space to do so. Therefore, I was thinking of enlarging the Japanese "Daifuku" text, such that there would be more room to track out the English "Daifuku" text. Also it seems that the alternate ways to say "strawberry" and "orange" works better with the tracking. However, the upside of the ones pertaining to my sketches has that consistency of 3 Katakana characters for the flavors. Each unifies the text in different ways.

Anyhow, more testing to come!

Package Design - Sketches

Between Apps and Package Design, I chose to do the package design assignment simply because I never had or even used an iPhone before, much less the apps themselves. Package design is more of what I'm into and it's kinda everywhere anyways, so I thought I'd do the package design assignment.

For the idea, probably because I recently ate a Daifuku, I decided to do a package related to Daifuku. I'm not sure why exactly I'm so fond of Daifuku though. Maybe I just wanted to do something simple and clean, and Daifuku just happened to be like that (and cute), so my idea is a Daifuku package.

First off, just some sketches relating to the project. I probably would've done a little more if I wasn't already 90% sure where I wanted this to go.

I started out with some logo sketches. I wanted the typography to relate to the product itself, which is something round, organic, fun, and hopefully sweet as well. If I can't depict "sweetness" in the typography, then at least I want to depict "pleasant". Above are four ideas. The first one is just something similar to bubble type, the second one has the letter D incorporated into an image of a Daifuku as part of the logo, the third one is something more like ordinary type except still keeping the whole roundness in mind, and the last one is just an image (probably a color pencil sketch or a photograph) with some simple type (not my own handwriting of course) to go along with it.

Then I thought... since Daifuku is really a Japanese product, and did two sketches for Japanese text.

The first one is Daifuku written in Kanji, which are characters typically borrowed from the Chinese language. However, I tried to simplify the shape of the Kanji as much as possible but still keeping it recognizable, and of course making it as round as possible as well. The bottom one is Daifuku written in Hiragana, which are characters from the original Japanese alphabet. Again, the idea was the same.

I also did some sketches with the flavors.

These are written in Katakana, which is the other Japanese alphabet that is typically used for words borrowed from other languages or just simply sounds. Occasionally it's also interchangeable with Hiragana. In this case, although "ichigo" and "mikan" are typically written in Hiragana, I chose to write them in Katakana because melon is typically written in Katakana. There's also the thing that the form of Katakana characters are more simple than Hiragana characters, making Katakana easier to simplify.

(btw, I wrote the Katakana for "n" incorrectly. It's missing one short stroke. As it is now, it's actually the Katakana "no". Didn't realize it until now... I haven't been practicing my Japanese enough apparently.)

And finally, some sketches on the actual possible packages.

The most unique one and the one was considering all along is the top right one. The others are kinda there just to see if there are any alternatives with the more common packaging, or just in case a simple package would turn out to be a better solution. After the discussion in class though, it seems like the top right one is indeed the way to go. Besides the fact that it's more unusual, it also relates to the shape of a Daifuku better. The handle is also nice. Obviously it's not my original idea though. I just found this image while doing a Google image search, and thought it was "the solution" for the general package shape/structure.