ANM 324 Project 4
Creating a label requires a broad range of illustration and design skills. These are small works of marketing art that, if successful, demand attention and help sell the product they represent.

Here’s my general grading criteria for this project:

95-100- Label is complete and artwork is challenging. It has excellent shelf appeal and demonstrated clear command of the Illustrator toolset. The label is a work of art!

90-95-Lable is very well done but there are some minor flaws in concept or execution. Type styling may not resonate with the content or theme of the product or you may have created a less than spectacular composition of image and text.

85-89-Label is good but may not completely communicate the essence of the product in either type resonance or design elements

80-85-Label has obvious technical and design issues that will prevent it from having good shelf appeal. Type doesn’t fit or image is too complex to be clearly understood by shoppers.

70-80-Label is not effective is communicating the essence of the product and major requirements are missing. There are significant technical flaws.

70-below very late work

Note: Late work will be downgraded by 10 pts and the lack of group critique will result in a 5 pt deduction.

Late -10

No Group Critique -5

Anita Kunz Group

Laura Allen- Your revision of the Tapatio label was one of the most successful in class. You’ve made significant artistic change but kept the essence of the original. I especially like the artwork with bowl and chips is beautifully rendered and would be very attractive and eye-catching on the shelf. The type font works well too..it has a party like look that complements the rest of the label. I wouldn’t suggest anything different. Ole’!

Anthony Campanario
- Your original concept for redesigning the label by showing tea and ice cubes was good but the illustration of those elements is not as effective as it could be. Both leaves and ice need to be larger and more well defined. This can be done with multi-layer transparency with the ice and more veins in the leaves to make sure the shopper knows what they are. From a composition point of view, what’s missing is visual hierarchy. No single element of text or image tends to standout. Lipton or the artwork should be larger and dominate for a clear focus. You’ve chosen a variety of fonts…Lipton has a strong font style but Diet seems to be abandoned in the middle. I’d suggest trying a larger yellow banner with well- defined lemons and the word Diet included to tie the extra information together.

Kayal Garrett-I really like the way you’ve emphasized the light, fluffy concept with the addition of the clouds. They are attractive and communicate a positive impression. You’ve also kept enough of the style of the original with the vertical stripes and fluffy lettering to allow shoppers to relate to the original, which they know they use to buy. Overall it’s fun and would definitely be a popular product on the shelf…this fluff is probably very bad for us but, wow, is it ever tasty! Excellent work.

Aaron Keisler-You did an excellent job illustrating the Pepsi label. I especially like the depth you’ve added to the Pepsi globe…looks great! At first glance, it’s hard to see what’s changed…the only other change I can see is the darker blue-black gradient which does add some sophistication to the product. The intention of the assignment was to make a major change by fixing elements of the old label that were, in your opinion, flawed. You have demonstrated excellent skill with the Illustrator tools and type formatting!

Rosenwald Group

Ariel Asher-This is a short long label that doesn’t give much space to provide a lot of information. Your idea to include a product, like the cake, that would be made with the Cocoa is
excellent. Hopefully the shopper would see that beautiful cake and think about making it. That urge would be further satisfied with the recipe for the chocolate frosting on the back. Your concept is very well thought-out and executed. Nice work!

Kathie Palomar-I just saw this bar in Safeway the other and thought about your redesign. You’re right, the original doesn’t communicate the idea of Cherry Pie flavor very clearly. You made modest changes to the originally layout with color and added the bunches of cherries. I would be more inclined to emphasize the cherries by consolidating into one larger bunch on one side rather that the balance of two. This is mostly personal preference but asymmetric layouts can be more attention getting. I do like the contrast of the new placement and color of Cherrie Pie. You’ve done an excellent job with type formatting on the back.

Morgan Shaw-I love the giant MUNCH

in the gorilla’s mouth. This would definitely get the attention of the kid’s along for the shopping trip. I’m a little torn by the effectiveness of the banana pattern in the background…it’s a bit of a distraction and does slightly effect readability of Envirkidz at the top. I did check and some gorillas do eat bananas so technically it fits the theme. Overall, it’s fun and definitely eye-catching…and the bananas are beginning to grow on me! Nice work!

Alana Woldhagen
-The strength of your label redo is the very effective use of type. I especially like the border done with brush styles around the recipe for garlic chicken. The illustration of the soup is not as effective as it could be. Food can be tricky to illustrate…of course mushroom soup is pretty much a tan/brown liquid as you have shown. It would look a little more precise if the soup didn’t come all the way to the top of the rim. The mushrooms look like mushrooms….they would have more depth without the drop shadow which makes them look like they are on a flat surface. You’ve given them good depth with the gradients…that would probably work without added shadow. Type setting and format of the nutrition facts looks very good.

Tassie Burton-I liked your rational for making the bottle of lotion more eye-catching and also emphasizing the waterproof/sweat proof features of the product. The umbrella is a simple graphic that has good positive connotations. This would be attractive on the shelf, especially if you were headed for a fine afternoon at the beach. Type styling for NO-AD, with stroke, makes it standout! All the necessary details are well arranged on the back and very readable. Excellent and well thought out rational for the design!

Samuel Ross
- As you discovered there is a lot going on with a simple product like tuna fish. It’s an especially big challenge to put all that info on a long narrow strip of paper. I think you’ve been very successful it capturing all the details as well as adding the tuna itself to the can. The only risk might be to those shoppers who really don’t want to directly relate the poor swimming fish to their sandwich. You’ve chosen to de-emphasize the name Bumble Bee….that’s OK, but the name is synonymous with tuna and key to marketing by branding. I suspect the company would want to see their name as large as possible. Additional type layout and formatting looks very good!

Kroencke Group

Caitlin Ayers-Your redesign of the Back To Basics lotion is a revision but not necessarily a dramatic change to the original. The incorporation of the figure adds some sensuality and the abstract forms that surround front and back add style and shelf appeal. I would have preferred if you omitted the auto trace shadow at the bottom…the focus should be totally on the label. Type styling is the strongest element of your redo…good balance of script vs. san serif styles. I think Blue Lavender should have stronger hierarchy over Basics. Make it larger, maybe stack the words Blue Lavender.

Elliot Harris-I thought your rational for the redesign had some good points. The notion that sliced vs. cut would be more appealing was a good idea. I would have been fine with you making that change on your new label. You have basically retained all the elements of the original except the central image. The plate of “sliced beans” is more appealing although they aren’t sliced or cut. I think the original is showing the before and after versions of the product.
Be careful with drop shadows, the one you applied to the beans gives the illusion that they are lifting off the platter and the candle/vase are up against a wall. The rendering of the platter and steam coming off the beans is excellent…I can almost smell them!

Michael Kuntz-Your new version of the Shasta label is different but similar enough so that frequent buyers of this product won’t be confused. Potential buyers will be attracted to the fresh bright look of the redo. I think the strength of the new design is the wave…it adds a lot of energy to the label. Getting rid of that stylized scale with Diet is a good move too. It looks so dated as a contemporary marketing icon. Although not a dramatic change to the character of Shasta, you have demonstrated excellent skill with the illustrator drawing and type tools.

Candeda Parks-The illustration of the mushrooms is the highlight of your Campbell’s Soup label. They are very realistic and are certainly more appealing than a bowl of brown liquid. I’m pretty sure Campbell would take exception to your restyle of their trademark name but anything is fair in the world of design. I do like your treatment of the Cream of Mushroom Soup..the stroke outline resolves any potential readability problems. My only question is if it would be fully readable when wrapped on a can and stacked on the shelf? UPC code is fine but your label is missing the nutrition details.

Rodolpho Torrencampo-I was interested in the group comments regarding your decision to make the label fully text based. Your product research indicated that the labeling was not clearly indicating that it was gum. You’ve made that more prominent in the layout. The Orbit package is challenging because it’s relatively small with lots of information to present. I did expect there to be some graphic element (other than gradients) on the package…it was a project requirement. Restyling the O or playing off the word Orbit with an orbit pattern would be the natural direction to go. An alternative might be to just use a more interesting font for the word Orbit….this would be consistent with your straightforward design style. Graphics, in this case, are important because they are easy to read at a glance and provide branding so that different products (gum, mints etc.) can be part of a recognized family of products. If you think of this product on the supermarket check-out lane rather than COSTCO..it has a lot of competition and noise to overcome.

Sahnnon Fannin-I’m not sure how you illustrated that bowl of cereal but it looks very realistic and is the main focus of the package. I think kids of all ages would love it and look forward to biting into some of those little marshmallows. I don’t think the product name is as effective as it cold be…type style is fine and it has good resonance. I would suggest filling the type with color…sampling other colors on the package is a good way to “test” options. The whole grain oval with gradient looks a little metallic for the product…again sampling a contrasting solid color might be a more simple and effective solution. Your type formatting of the nutrition facts looks very good but could use a box and rules to better define for readability. The visible rules are defining the edges of the package but the image overflows at the bottom …here’s trick if you want to hide parts of a piece that are within the artboard. Just draw a white filled on a new top layer and move to cover the area you want out of view. I use this technique a lot.

Frazier Group

Nicholas Bradwell-You’ve shifted the hierarchy from the name to the figure of Peter Pan….that’s certainly an option that might make the product more identifiable on the shelf. Your illustration of Peter is very good and the banner with name is nicely styled. Overall the label is not a dramatic change over the original. I suspect frequent buyers of the product might not even notice..that’s not necessarily bad because you don’t want to loose buyers but rater pick-up new shoppers. Type in the nutrition facts block looks very good but where’s the required upc code element?

Claire Lacombe-this looks like a fun winery with the name Pithy Little Wine Co. You’ve kept the black sophisticated theme but made a big change to the logo and type styling. I like your choice of type style for the name which is much more prominent and the winged goblet which I take it is the new logotype since it’s also in the backside background. It’s fun and to me seems to fit the name. I’m not sure what the halo does…,I guess there’s a relationship with the goblet being an angel…it’s a little confusing. I don’t’ think breaking-up the vintage year is the best idea. I would suggest simplifying and doing away with the grey rectangle or maybe making it a tall triangle that goes through the ring. As is, I think the back is more successful than the front. I like the balance between type and image, while still achieving hierarchy and readability.

Adam Watts-We had both you and Kimberly doing very similar redesigns for sunflower seeds.
Without seeing the original, it’s difficult to compare but I recall you saying it showed seeds and you thought the depiction of the sunflower would be more appealing. It looks like you’ve used a photo of the sunflower. For this assignment I would rather have seen you draw or perhaps use the auto trace to convert to vector art. I do like the strong contrast of the name Sunflower Kernals it could even be larger if stacked. Did you set all the nutrition type in Illustrator?

Kimberly Johnson-I really like the fact that you chose to render the sunflower image in Illustrator. The original label is very generic…I guess shoppers can see the contents of the container but
a more attractive label can’t hurt. You’ve demonstrated good skill both the drawing and typesetting tools. I especially like the composition on the front..looks great!

Tamara Ruxin-The artwork on the cover of your Swee-Touch-Nee tea box really stands out…the lighting effects give it great depth. Type style and color it also very readable against the dark blue background. My only suggestion would be to make the name a bit larger. It’s a little understated. Because it’s an unusual name I think it warrants stronger hierarchy which would help establish brand awareness and hopefully loyalty.

Rachel Ladd-It’s obvious you put lots of effort into the design and layout of your California olive label. I especially like the contrast between the pattern background and the large oval piece. The olive branch is a nice added touch. The metallic gradient applied to the Early California type is striking, although to me it makes it less readable. Type in the nutrition facts is very well done and demonstrates excellent skill with the formatting tools. Very nice work! It would be nice to have the original to compare before/after.

Nancy Her-You’ve made some very effective changes to the label on the Blue Ribbon rice packaging. The bag and bowl of rice help illustrate the origin and use of the product and are fun and appealing. There’s lots of text with the nutrition facts, cooking directions and product information. You definitely got some experience with the type and text formatting tools. While the changes aren’t overwhelming they do enhance the shelf appeal of the product.