Media and Inquiry #4

I struggled with this inquiry in the beginning. I researched for so long and felt like I kept getting reasons to not do my original packaging design. I don't think it's the best design solution for this brand for practicality sake, but nevertheless, eventually I just had to make things and stop psyching myself out. I decided to make the patterns that I had originally thought of and use the illlustrations as supplemental brand imagery, and ask the class for feedback.

The pattern that took the most work and struggling was the bacon. I actually originally started by trying to make a pattern of their bbq box items, like ribs and pork. My original plan of action was to take imaged from google and image trace them. This really made my pattern really unoriginal and anybody could do it. It was also hard to fit all the shapes together and really deal with the light and shadows of each illustration. I knew this wasn't going to work, so I eventually started on my bacon pattern. I was really trying to do a half drop pattern so the bacon wouldn't be repetitive horizontally. Another setback that happened was after I had already finished the bacon, I went back on their website and realized that bacon wasn't even in their main category of food boxes, I had accidentally read that on another part of the website.

Nevertheless, with a pattern already made I was able to continue my work on the project with a step already made. I already had an idea for how I wanted the cookie pattern to look so I moved forward with that one and was happy with how it turned out.

I didn't have any preconceived idea for the third pattern, and eventually choosing seafood was never in my original plan. This pattern really turned out to be my absolute favorite and I am so proud of it. I showed it to my mom and she also loved it, saying she knows of so many people woh would buy objects with a pattern like that, whether it be napkins, paper for a low country boil, wrapping paper, or a dress similar to Lily Pullitzer. That really is not my scene, so I didn't think about that at all, but it made me feel confident about the possibility of future jobs. I really enjoyed making this pattern and I wouldn't mind doing that for my job!

In class, I talked about instead using this pattern as tape, and if I were to continue with this project, that's what I would probably do. I also thought about possibly making stickers that could go in the boxes.

This was very interesting to read about the process of this logo design, especially since I did orchestra in high school. I played the cello! My high school orchestra teacher actually approached me at one point to make a new logo for our program, and at the time, I had no idea how to do it. I tried, but ultimately couldn't come up with any good ideas. I'm happy to say that I think I could go back now and make a logo confidently after three years of learning about design!

Actually being walked through the entire process that they went through was so interesting! I felt seen when Bierut said that he thought he had nailed his first idea, but the client didn't like it. He said, "Just because you've solved every element of the problem, it doesn't mean it's good. Before this year, I honestly wasn't a big believer in continuing to work on things that already seemed good enough. I thought I wouldn't be able to come up with better ideas. It's the fact that in both my illustration courses this year, I've had to draw upwards of 50-100 things for just the first project. In both instances, some of my favorite work were things that I did after cranking out 40 other things. Quantity is really my friend it seems.

As far as critique goes, it's good to put in perspective, that people don't see the struggle, hours, and thought you've put into every decision. This is why it's important for design choices to be strong, and also to walk people through your process. I've learned that even just this semester through our presentations. I feel like in my first Inquiry presentation, I didn't do a great job at walking the audience through my process in an easy to understand way, and I think it showed in my feedback form. It's definitely the one I've done worst at I think, in comparison to my other work. There's also something to be said, however, for the critique given by people who are not as attached to the work. This chapter said that Bierut "relies on [his clients'] input to figure out what is and is not working." I feel like I appreciated feedback like this with both my Animals in Hats presentation and my GoldBelly project. 

At first I didn't really like the word mark option with multiple typefaces, but the more I looked at it the more it really grew on me. I also like the brush mark version for the NWS word mark. I did not like the abstract counter forms, because I felt like it was not legible as letter forms.

When I read about Schwitter's concept inspired by Merzbau, I kind of really like what he saw as "too corporate", which could be an accurate statement. I asked my boyfriend what he thought the black form said, because I was interested to see what he would say with no background or context. After a couple seconds on each letterform, he confidently said each letter correctly, but said it "took a lot". 

I really liked the direction that a lot of Bierut's sketches took, being more inspired by musical notation. The final mark... I don't think I love it. I definitely understand the concept, and I think it's strong but to me it just looks like a bunch of squiggly lines. I don't think I would ever think to read that as letters. Sorry Bierut!