OUGD503 - Studio Brief 1: Competition Brief 6 Re-Design: Charlie & Reed

After the last crit and my review of my work up to this point, I decided to revisit my response to the 99Designs competition 'Charlie & Reed - Charlie's Foodshop', as I didn't think my initial response was to the best of my ability or to what the brief wanted at all.

Original Response Link

I  reviewed this blog post to see why I designed the way I did. I can see why I did design the way I did and create the response, however as a designer, I don't think that this response was good enough. I do think that this was much to do with the fact that the brief wasn't written particularly well and the client didn't seem to know what they wanted, much to the point that they never actually chose a winner for the competition.

With this in mind, I decided to use this as a mini task for myself to design the labels to how they could be, while using it as an opportunity to experiment with illustration and type and working them together as this is something I haven't really done much of, and would like to. I also think that because there is no deadline it gives me a chance to create something I like instead of what the client likes as there is no way for me to know if they would like it now.

Like before, I am just going to focus on one product 'Strawberry Jam'. This way it gives me a bit of content that I can create variations for without wasting time on this.

I had a pretty clear idea into the composition I wanted this design to take. I wanted to combine a traditional rustic look with a modern layout and colour scheme. I thought that the colours and illustrations could be the clear differences in the product range, keeping the composition completely the same for each label.

I thought that this would make it very easy for the customer to see which product was what and not have to spend time reading everything to figure that out.

I started by creating the illustration for strawberries. Keeping in with the contemporary style, I wanted them to be simple one colour images that worked well at a small scale. This was the main aspect I took into consideration for the design. I didn't want it to be too overly complicated so decided to just go with the basic shape of a strawberry and not include shadows or shading of any kind, keeping the design flat.

 I then started working on the label itself. I had a very clear idea into what I wanted the overall look to be, but knew that there was a bit of development of this that was needed.

I noticed on my original response that I had put all my type in uppercase, which is obviously very hard for the customer to read. I don't think having the product name in uppercase is a problem, but having all the type is.

Also, I did like the mix of serif and sans serif typefaces, as I do think that it work, aside from the obvious issue of uppercase throughout. I do think the serif typeface chosen was a good choice, but the sans serif typeface didn't work well, and definitely won't work well now on the new design.

I looked at a few variations that I can use for the product name and for the other text.

I then went about seeing which ones worked well together and fit what I wanted the overall aesthetic to be.

I decided on 'Georgia' for the serif typeface and 'Bebas Neue' for the serif typeface as I think that these two seem to work together well.

I then created the label. I created it in two variations, one in full colour and with white detail, and the second in white with the colour detail.

At this point I think the labels have been successful and do work well. I do prefer the one in full colour, but the white one could be useful for other points of the branding.

I then decided on expanding the label range by thinking about the products that would be on sale/needed in the shop. I decided to keep it simple and do a label example for a larger jar, and then for the shopping bag after a purchase.

I thought that the shopping bag would be a good piece of media to use the white label on.

I then looked into a possible selection of colours that could be used. I chose four colours, trying to keep them all away from the bright versions, and go with something a bit more flat and pastel like - but not too dull.

 I then applied these to the selected media I found, and at this point I have started working on my project report, so I created the image to display this work in that.

For a quick redesign I am much happier with my response to this brief as I feel that it is much more creative and reflects a much more interesting brand than the previous design does. I like the idea of the colour coding for each product and a different illustration. I think that this will give each product their own identity and a purpose in the brand as it shows that each product has the same amount of time and effort put into the design.