Want to know what kinds of things go through my head, even when I’m not at “work”?

Del Taco Coupons (“Go Bold or Go Home” Campaign)

I got this in the mail and immediately thought it was pretty attractive. That always pushes my “But why?” button! So I started looking deeper.

The background has a nice texture to it; interesting, but not dominating. It’s darkened around the edges (value), making a sort of spotlight (ah, shape!) of a lighter background behind the taco. Red is also a warm color, which is good for food (we like hot food, especially for tacos). Can you imagine this with a blue background? Not nearly as appealing!

Good design critique is not only about observing what is there, but what isn’t there, or what the designer(s) could’ve done instead but decided against. Remember that before this design was complete, the designer had to make a lot of choices and we don’t see the alternatives he/she could’ve done unless we ask ourselves what they could be.

This is the back. Yellow and yellow-green are analogous colors. I think this is a good color choice, especially for the subjects, jalapeños and breakfast (eggs, hashbrowns and waffles are yellow!). Do you see? Colors are about what we associate with them and the context they are used in. If this were an ad for laundry detergent, yellow might mean clean, bright and cheerful to us in that context.

The “New” above Jalapeño Rings is a little cramped and it creates visual tension. But as I look for how I could improve it, I see why it’s like that. Down at the bottom, the designer needed to put some legal disclaimers and copyright information, so instead of having that completely unreadable, s/he used the red product box as the background. So we can’t move the product down a bit in order to move the title and “New” down to give it more space. And then we look above and see there’s not a whole lot of room in those coupons either.  Well, ok, at the very least then, maybe “new” could have been made smaller (that would have taken care of the slight overlap—more tension!—within the black price box, too).

Speaking of tension, the front has some, too. The 99 cents box is nearly touching the taco. That is visually tense. It should either have plenty of space around it, or overlap the taco. This black box and price could have easily been smaller to get rid of that tension.

This is a 6 column grid. But few things line up precisely! I even tried some different margin and alley sizes. Notice some of the alignments: follow the left align from the 99 cents box down to “Tuedays” and “3 Classic Tacos.” Not quite even. Same for the other side. Even if you don’t want to use a grid (which is not recommended!), at the very least, make sure your elements align to themselves if not to a grid (the top and bottom elements here should at least line up together).

So this is picky, but the alignment does bug me! The color division should align down the center of the dashed stroke around the coupons, instead it’s aligned to the left side of the stroke.

Go Bold or Go Home, Sherlock!

So that font. It’s so familiar isn’t it? Just a little poking around in the WhatTheFont forum revealed it’s called Ravenscroft (a free download from Mickey Avenue). The author says, “Ravenscroft was inspired by the lettering used around Disney’s Haunted Mansion attractions.”

But it has definitely existed before this digital version, which was created in 2001. The Sherlock Holmes series from Granada (the ones with Jeremy Brett from 1984 – 1994) used an extremly similar font extensively in titles. And I swear I’ve seen it in some Taco Bell stuff, too! Lesson: be careful when using these recognizable display fonts. They may remind people of things you didn’t intend!

Did you notice anything else about this design? Do you critique designs like this in order to learn from them, even in your supposedly off hours?

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It is helpful to go over each element and principle individually, but it is equally as helpful to see how each element and principle of design works in the context of a single design. Below we will analyze the design theory behind this Wrigley’s Tea Escapes packaging from Hornall Anderson.

Overview

Remember the elements of design are color, line, shape, space, scale/size, texture and value.

The principles of design are balance, contrast, direction, economy, emphasis, proportion, rhythm/repetition and unity/harmony.

While going through this critique, also ask yourself how each element and principle affects the mood of the design and also how each contributes to the message and the delivery of that message. What is the message of this design? Some key words and phrase from the Hornall Anderson site:

• Making candy a spiritual experience
• A delicious, nourishing experience for mind, body, and spirit
• Much more than just a candy

Analyzing the Design

The color palette used in this tea candy packaging is fairly monochromatic; each version uses different shades (hue + black), tints (+ white) and tones (+ grey) of one base color. This lends a heavy, yet not unpleasant hand to the unity of the package.

The value of the background gets lighter as we get towards the center of the package, which frames the focal point, the Tea Escapes logo and text, well and draws the eye to it. Notice that the gradient is in the shape of a circle as well (it could have been more of an inner glow around outside of the square tin instead, for example). Circles are a famous way to say, “Hey! Look at this!” (Spotlight anyone?) By using a soft gradient, though, it makes this focal point indicator much more subtle and sophisticated. Did you see that there are actually two gradients? The one in the background, but also the one on the leaf itself.  And that’s a very large (scale! Large items draw more attention), round leaf, too. Pretty clever.

The line texture in the background is also converging in the middle of the design, just in case you didn’t know that’s where your eye is supposed to be going.

Take a look at the overall values present in the packaging series. The area with the most contrast is in the center. Geez, they really want you to look at the center of those packages don’t they!

Finally, along with the gradients pointing there, the center of the package is the area with the highest concentration of the lightest value (all that text and the Harmony character).

Notice how all these elements of design (shape, value, line, scale) contribute to the principle of direction. Even the principles of contrast and proportion contribute to direction.

The design is pretty well centrally balanced because of the design decisions addressed above, but also because of the distribution of space. The main shape, the leaf, is mostly round, but it is still an organic (not geometric) shape. It breaks up the canvas and creates a more interesting negative area around it, which is conveniently broken up into quadrants with the aid of the tags on the sides. These quadrants are then filled with extra information about the candy. The net weight text creates a sturdy base for the design and anchors the design at the bottom (they could have made that text smaller and shoved it to one side).

I would say the only thing that feels awkward is the Harmony icon in the logo. Why make it half knocked out? Perhaps a nod to yin and yang? Maybe because now it looks like two ‘E’s for Escapes?

Some other brief notes on the elements and principles employed here:

• The tabs on the left and right sides almost bracket the name Tea Escapes, giving it more emphasis.
• Unity is created through a monochromatic color scheme, similar values in the hues throughout the series (when you look at the grayscale image above, the tins look amazingly similar, though in color they are easy to tell apart).
• Rhythm is created through the line texture in the background and by repeating the same layout throughout each package in the series.
• There are some nice contrasts in shape (square tin, round leaf) to add interest. Contrast
• Think about the effects of the proportion of the leaf to whole tin. What would be the affect on the design if the leaf was smaller? What if it was so large it got cut off at the top and bottom?
• Remember that the principle of economy means that there is not a single element that doesn’t belong nor is there anything detracts from the message. Do you see anything that is not economical in these designs? Extra colors, lines, too many textures or even too many words or pictures?

Typographical Hierarchy

The hierarchy of the text is important to consider, too. We can specifically analyze the use of color, value, size and contrast here. The design tells us that the most important text is Tea Escapes (and the logo). How do we know? It is the largest sized text and it has the most contrast in value (it’s white, while all the other text is a shade or tint of the main hue!) and also by the placement on the page, in the middle of all those other elements directing us to the center that we were talking about above.

The design tells us the least important piece of information is the net weight at the bottom. How do we know? It is in the least amount of value contrast relative to its surroundings, it is very dark, it’s at the bottom of the layout and there is nothing around it that draws attention to it (like the two tidbits in the upper corners with their flourishes).

The type of tea flavor in the candy (green, red, chai, etc) is slightly curved, which separates it and the text below it a bit from the Tea Escapes logo and title, telling us that it’s important, but not as important as the fact that you are buying Tea Escapes.

Notice the consistency (unity) of the typography, too. There are no combinations of upper and lower case letters. The words are either in all upper case or all lower case, and actually, the only occurrence of lower case letters is the script “infused with.” The script font and the lower case letters of “infused with” diminish the importance of that phrase, and really, it’s only there to connect, so the rest of the text below it (an important part) belongs.

What other uses of the elements and principles do you notice? Does studying successful designs by breaking apart the uses of the elements and principles help you become a better designer? Why not try it on your own? Or better yet, write an article discussing them for Creative Curio!

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Thank you for being a loyal Creative Curio reader. Since you like the content I publish so much, why not tell a friend?

Take a look…

Longe Foods

Although each bag only contains two main colors, the branding as a whole sticks with colors that are the roughly same value (see what the color samples look like in greyscale!).

Frog Eye

Interesting implementation of complimentary colors red and green, but not Christmasy. Why? Because the red is almost magenta and the green is more towards the yellow and has had quite a lot of white added, so it’s lighter.

Kolachy

This is a great example of a monochromatic (single color) scheme. Icon design from Von Glitschka.

Flow Yoga

This color palette feels fresh and contemporary, yet kinda retro. It’s definitely fitting for a yoga company and it’s good to see the art director’s vision carried through to the photography colors, too.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Seeing as today is my birthday (Happy Birthday, Me!) I thought I’d sharesome birthday cake wrecks with you. I think Cake Wrecks is the next LOLcat.

“Mayhaps this is why the rum is always gone, eh, maties?” So maybe this doesn’t look so bad at first glance, but head over to Cake Wrecks to read the commentary (and the comments, which are just as funny!).

Erm… why?

Ok, so this isn’t a wreck, it’s just plain awesome! I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Enjoy your Friday!

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Thanks for subscribing to the Creative Curio feed! You can pick up your free subscriber gift, a handy cheat sheet of common Photoshop shortcuts,  by going to the PDF Download Page. You are most welcome to read the articles and comments that helped create this PDF and contribute more if you have some!

Thank you for being a loyal Creative Curio reader. Since you like the content I publish so much, why not tell a friend?

What specifically dictates the look of a style? Knowing or being able to figure out why a design radiates a particular mood will help you either guide a design towards that look or steer it away. I’ve had many times when I’ve done a logo that just looks too childish and at first I can’t pinpoint exactly why. There have been other times when I want a distinctly Renaissance look, but my art elements just don’t quite make it. Let’s take a look at what elements these designs have in common that gives them their juvenile appeal.

Color

The most obvious color choices would be the primary triad: Blue, Yellow and Red. These are common colors that are found in children’s toys, books and games. Bold colors tend to be found in items targeting children, too.

Line

To give something a juvenile look, the lines are generally quite thick (cartoons!), and many times objects will be outlined with a stroke. If imitating the way a young child draws or colors, the lines are also unsteady, uneven and erratic.

Shape

Shapes tend to be very basic and geometric. Remember that young ones are just learning to distinguish these fundamental shapes, so things are purposefully kept simple.

Scale

Young children who are just learning to read need to have letters very clearly distinguished in a layout. You usually find large lettering in books for young ones. Even objects in designs for children are bigger than they might be in a design targeting adults because that’s how they appear in reality to kids.

In terms of perspective, kids perceive their worlds much closer to the ground than adults, so it’s not uncommon for only things 3-4 feet or shorter to appear in a scene. Now that I think about it, even many cartoons will not show anything but the legs of adults on screen. The specific cartoon that comes to my mind is the Roger Rabbit short before Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (I suppose that tells you what demographic I’m from!).

Space

Generally it’s good to have ample space around the object(s) you want to draw a child’s attention to, especially if you’re trying to get them hooked on a specific product (like toys). They are very easily distracted and although a complicated, ornate design like the one above (via doodlage) will hold a child’s attention well, they might miss the point! This style of illustration might be good for something like a child’s book, though, where the point is to entertain them and hold their attention.

Value

Children’s items tend to be very saturated (pure hue) with color; rarely do you see a children’s book with dark, muted values, unless you are reading your children Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events!

Subject is Important Too

Although you might categorize this style as juvenile, I would argue it doesn’t feel as child-like as the above examples. I think the content or subject is just as important as the style. Something about Nate’s style doesn’t quite sit as being classified as child-like to me. What do you think?

Summary

So what does all this come down to? Keep it simple! Pure colors, lots of space (generally), basic shapes, thick strokes. Notice how text is generally blocky and usually angled slightly, too. I think I might argue for sentence case and serif fonts, though, because they tend to be easier for children to recognize. Go grab your favorite children’s book and see if it’s a serif or a sans serif font. I bet it’s a serif.

Still need more ideas for your next kid’s package design? A simple search through sites like Amazon or Toys “R” Us for games or books for kids ages birth through 6 years old will probably turn up just what you need!

Breaking the Rules: The Opposite

Take one of these elements like color or value and do the complete opposite. What happens? It can still be childish, yet perhaps now it has a haunting undertone to it. How is this useful? It could be a successful way to design a public service campaign for children’s safety, or illustrate the bad guy’s entrance in a storybook.

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Thanks for subscribing to the Creative Curio feed! You can pick up your free subscriber gift, a handy cheat sheet of common Photoshop shortcuts,  by going to the PDF Download Page. You are most welcome to read the articles and comments that helped create this PDF and contribute more if you have some!

Thank you for being a loyal Creative Curio reader. Since you like the content I publish so much, why not tell a friend?