13/04/2020 - 11/05/2020 (Week 1 - Week 5)
Neoh Kar Yan (0339338)
Packaging & Merchandising Design
Exercises
LECTURE NOTES
Week 1 (13/04/20)
Purpose of Packaging
On our first day of class via Zoom, Mr. Shamsul briefed us on the module outline and every assignment. We proceed to have our first group presentation on the purpose of packaging.
Week 2 (20/04/20)
How it evolved?
Week 3 (27/04/20)
Image vs Imagery
Week 4 (04/05/20)
Colours & Typography in Packaging Design
Box Making & Dieline
(Week 1 - Week 2)
For our first exercise, we were to design a box for two loose items. We had to take something from our house that doesn't have a packaging and design a box for it. The item should not be bigger than 300mm.
Initially, the items I chose were a hand sanitizer and an air humidifier, but the air humidifier was later changed to body butter.
These were my sketches.
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| Fig 1.1: Hand Sanitizer Sketches #1 |
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| Fig 1.2: Hand Sanitizer Sketches #2 |
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| Fig 1.3: Air humidifier sketches |
Item #1 - Hand Sanitizer
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| Fig 1.4: Item #1 (Hand Sanitizer) |
For my hand sanitizer, I first sketched the dieline, then digitize it in Illustrator. Here is my process.
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| Fig 1.5: Process |
Then, I printed it out and created a number of mockups, continuously adjusting the size and orientation of the dieline.
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| Fig 1.6: Dieline printed and cut out |
For my second attempt, I again drew the dieline, cut it out and assembled the box. After trial and error, I decided on the design. My opening flap was changed from the front to the back as suggested by Mr. Shamsul. I also added a connected tray in the box to hold the product better in place. After I was finally satisfied with the box, I repeated the process on a thicker paper.
Here is the final dieline:
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| Fig 1.7: Final Dieline |
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| Fig 1.8: Making of tray holder |
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| Fig 1.9: Number of mockups made |
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| Fig 1.10: Final mockup |
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| Fig 1.11: Final mockup (Opening) |
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| Fig 1.12: Final mockup without item |
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| Fig 1.13: Final mockup without item (Side) |
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| Fig 1.14: Final mockup without item (Inside) |
Video:
Item #2 - Body Butter
For my second item, I chose a body butter. It has a round shape so there were quite a few limitations to how it can be packaged effectively. I came up with a few ideas and sketches.
After sketching, I chose the first idea. It is a square box with a round plastic film in front. I drew the dieline, made a few mockups, and adjusted the measurements.
Here is the final dieline.
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| Fig 1.17: Final mockup |
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| Fig 1.18: Final mockup |
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| Fig 1.19: Final mockup (without item) |
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| Fig 1.20: Final mockup (Inside) |
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| Fig 1.21: Final mockup (Back) |
Video:
Here are the submitted slides:
Playing Cards
Week 3
This week we showed Mr. Shamsul our sketches, ideas, and inspirations for our playing cards. My chosen style is contemporary, the reason being I plan to introduce the Malaysian food and culture using the playing cards, and the art style I was inspired was by the artists, Brosmind.
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| Fig 2.1: Visual References |
Mr. Shamsul suggested I create a survey to include the audience's opinion on which food goes best with which character in the playing cards deck. Hence, the decisions made aren't my judgment alone.
Here is the survey created:
After collecting all the responses, I gathered the data and determined which food belongs to which character. Here is the final lineup:
King: Nasi Lemak
Queen: Hainanese Chicken Rice
Jack: Roti Canai
10: Burger Ramly
9: Maggi Curry
8: Pau
7: Otak-otak
6: Ice Gems
5: Teh Tarik
4: Kuih lapis
3: Kopi
2: Milo
Ace: Durian
Joker: ABC Ice Kacang
To start with, the sketches were made on paper for each of the characters. Then, the sketches were outlined to make things easier to trace in Illustrator. Honestly, this process was so much harder than I thought. To come up with fourteen characters wasn't easy at all. The ideation behind every character, the personality to reflect the character, and more.
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| Fig 2.2: All characters |
Week 4
I then traced each of them on Illustrator.
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| Fig 2.3: Process |
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| Fig 2.4: Process of colouring |
After feedback from Mr. Shamsul, I worked on improving the colours of my characters and making it look more vibrant. Here are the characters all coloured.
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| Fig 2.5: Colouring complete |
I then worked on designing the box. I designed four variations then chose the one I like which is the one in dark turquoise.
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| Fig 2.6: Box design process |
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| Fig 2.7: Rough box design layout |
The same method I did for my box design, I explored different variations of the design of the back of the card. My goal for this was to make the top and bottom symmetrical as it is a playing card, and the orientation of the card should not be easily identified by other players.
For my back card, I used triangular shapes to represent the Nasi Lemak in banana leaf. I figured that this represents the whole identity of the playing cards set. Instead of including every character, I chose only one, which is Nasi Lemak also known as the king of Malaysian food as voted by my respondents.
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| Fig 2.8: Back card design process |
It was a hard decision between the bottom two designs, but in the end, I chose this as it is simple and straight to the point without having too many colours, having the text top and bottom of each other is quite cute too.
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| Fig 2.9: Design of Back card |
I then continue to design the facing cards by adding in elements of the suites and captions for every character. The colours chosen for my suites were red and black. Different colours were allocated to different character based on their main colour. For instance, green for Nasi Lemak.
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| Fig 2.10: Facing cards design process |
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| Fig 2.11: Cards design (Diamonds) |
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| Fig 2.12: Cards design (Clubs) |
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| Fig 2.13: Cards design (Hearts) |
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| Fig 2.14: Cards design (Spades) |
FEEDBACK
Week 1
Specific feedback: Mr. Shamsul said okay to my loose items. After sketching, he commented "For hand sanitizer, #2 looks okay. More presentable. I would suggest you add a tray in the box so it can hold the product better. For Humidifier, what is the weight of the product? I'm not sure that both options can hold the product. The first one is okay. It show's the brand and the user can see what is inside. But what if the top closer panel is facing the other way round."
Week 2
Specific feedback: Mr. Shamsul said my hand sanitizer box looks good, no need to have plastic window. However, my mockup seems to have some cracks. For my actual submission, I will have to redo it and submit a nicer one. After showing my item #2, he said "OK. Good work. Make sure you submit the dieline as well."
Week 3
Specific feedback: Mr. Shamsul said that my blog looks good. Both my items have enough space around the window so that the box is strong. The overall construction of both my boxes is neat and good, although there is still some slight cracks on the hand sanitizer box. For my playing cards, Mr. Shamsul liked my idea and he suggested that I create a survey to include the people without a design background to vote for the Malaysian food that best represents the playing card characters because I'm doing for Malaysians, not myself. For my survey, I should change the Kopitiam breakfast to some other food in the same category, use Malaysian desserts for Joker because Joker is more playful.
Week 4
Specific feedback: For my playing card characters, Mr. Shamsul said my colours are still quite dull and need more saturation in my colours. The drawing looks okay and he suggested me to put a name for each character. I can also perform a focus group test amongst my family members without a design background if they can identify the characters. For my box design, Mr. Shamsul said that there are too many colours, which will become too complicated. Because the file size is too big, he suggested me to separate the layers into different files so it wouldn't be too laggy. Overall, I need to work on the colours of my characters and improve the design of my box cover.
Week 5
It was a public holiday
REFLECTION
Experience
Week 1: In the first class, we were briefed on the exercises and projects that we'll be doing. We also got to present the purpose of packaging. Week 2: This week, we learned about the history of packaging and got to show our mockups. Week 3: I learned that image and imagery both are really important and how elements play together to form a strong brand identity. Week 4: I Week 5: This week I started to sketch out the characters of the playing cards.
Observation
Week 1: I observed that some of my classmates have really nice packagings. Week 2: I observed that I need to make a few mockups in order to achieve the size I want as making mockups are really useful to make adjustments to the measurements. Week 3: I noticed that almost everyone is going for a contemporary style for their playing cards. Week 4: It was hard to come up with an information hierarchy for the card characters.
Findings
Week 1: I learned that practicality was more important than aesthetics when it comes to designing a good packaging. Week 2: I realized that making the actual mockup on an art card was quite challenging as I really needed to be precise and careful during the cutting and folding process. Week 3: I realized that if I do something engaging that involves the public, it is good to have a survey to listen to their opinion and from there, it contributes to my decision making where I am not deciding for myself, but for them.
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