OUGD401: Practical Exploration (Making Of)

Apple Holder

Main Box

Outer Wrapper

After finishing putting together the final product box, there was one or two little aspects of it that didn't quite work as anticipated. The main one being the closing tab at the top, this didn't close fully as shown below. The reason being is that I didn't take into account the extra space needed for the box to rest against the glued tabs on the inside of the 'Outer Wrapper' section. This ultimately meant that there was about half a centimetre between the two sides.

Another problem was because I didn't consider the thickness of the stock when doing test prints and fits, this resulted in bowing of some sides as the box exceeded the size of the base of the outer wrapper by roughly 2mm.

OUGD401: Practical Exploration (Box Design)

Considering the previous brand mark I'd created wasn't entirely fitting to the concept I had in mind, I played around with something more sophisticated.

Using a sans serif typeface placed within a structured rectangle meant that it created a sharp and striking brand mark, as opposed to the soft, playful one from before. Although the element of modern has been brought through with this current logo, I wanted to still incorporate the organic feel I originally set out to have within the design.

As for the arrangement of the letters, left aligned seemed to work the best simply because it seemed more organised and structured than centre aligned.

First thoughts were to use a natural texture along with the current brand mark, something along the lines of a natural wood grain texture but as a line drawing would work to contrast the structured feel of the of the typeface and bounding box.

The only problem I found with this current branding is that the blank space makes the brand mark look incomplete. To solve this I took the aspect of including the vectored outline of an apple and including that within the blank space to bring together the whole mark.

The two options I ended up with was one minimal apple shape, and the other one the same shape, but with the shape layered up to follow on from this grain texture that already is prominent within the branding.

The majority vote after a short conversation with fellow peers was the logo on the left as this had more of a solid feel to it whereas the plain one felt hollow. Also the chosen mark would also do a good job representing the brand on it's own without any typography as it's a distinct and unique mark as opposed to the other mark which is a basic vector apple outline.

I moved onto choosing a relatively light colour scheme that I thought would fit best with the concept and packaging as a whole, especially considering apples are for the most part relatively light coloured.

The colours were mainly taken from a piece of wood to fit in with the natural look, the green was taken from an apple but toned down to become a more softer texture to fit better with the shades of brown. White was taken to contrast enough with colours to catch people's attention without being too sharp to be an eye sore.

Final Brand Mark w/ Added Colour Scheme

Box Sections

There are 3 total parts to the box which will be different colours using the existing colour scheme. This is so that they create a soft contrast between the different sections rather than appearing as a one colour box which may not create that much appeal about the overall look.

The reason behind the boxed off words was to isolate them in the hope to draw attention to them to further emphasis this underlying concept of a premium quality product.

There were certain aspects of the box design that I had to reconsider after a small feedback session with two other peers. Given that I was using 'Moon' typeface for the brand mark because of it's structured and sleek look, I automatically used that for the remaining type on the box designs.

But as shown above, the natural look I was going for didn't fit as well with the actual words 'Natural' and 'Organic' because their literal meaning is portrayed within the visual look of the word. Instead I opted for a more hand written style of typeface called 'DK Lemon Yellow Sun' which was much better suited to portraying the meaning of the words.

Final Box Design

A few extra little adjustments that were made was the addition of the brand logo on the side of the main box so that appear prominent when the outer wrapper is placed around it. Also the grainy wood texture was made slightly more subtle as originally it was too harsh of a contrast and took away from the main branding of the box.

OUGD401: Practical Exploration (Box Development)

Mockup of Net

Apple Holder

Mockup of Box

This piece of packaging appears very natural looking due to the rough textured brown stock coupled with the one colour hand drawn illustrations printed onto it. The inconsistent texture of the illustrations add to this natural look and the minimal coloured wrap arounds make for an attractive and high class design, which is exactly what I'm aiming for with my piece.

Upon reflection, the chosen box design so far doesn't fit as well with my original aim of having something complex and sleek looking. After looking at other package designs and box nets I replicated a net that I think would fit more suitably to my product concept.

The box consists of three nets, the main box and apple holder inner box and then the outer wrapper that wraps around the main box. A box design like this would give a feel of luxury and better quality than the original box I planned on using.

OUGD401: Practical Exploration (Development)

The box net itself is something I wanted to put a lot of effort into as this is the first impression aside from the design printed onto it. A complex and sleek looking box can often draw the attention of the consumer simply because of how they're intrigued as to how it works, rather than seeing a typical folding box.

My initial idea for a box was to have one with a handle to make it easier to handle and to add to the complexity of the design.

Potential Box Layout & Design Sketches

My plan for the style of the design was to combine a simple, modern style with an organic and hand made feel to bring through the quality and production time spent on the product and the packaging.

Each different side of the box would be a different section that tries to emphasise this idea of the apple being different and special, using trigger words. The different sections being things such as nutritional facts, '1 of your 5 a day' etc.

To go with the organic theme, I wanted the branding to match this with a hand drawn style.

Brand Concepts

The brand concepts didn't stand out well enough, they seem too rough and not appropriate. Instead having a sophisticated and modern brand contrasted with an organic, natural looking box design would work much better in terms of creating an effective look.

OUGD401: Practical Exploration (Establishing my Idea)

Following on from the previous post about aiming to create a brand of single packaged apples than a pack of them using a mixture of trigger words, I found examples of some existing fruit packaging.

I also looked at examples of authentic hand made pieces of work to fit in with what I am trying to achieve with the style of my packaging

A lot of what makes these pieces appear authentic is a combination of the hand written style typefaces and soft pastel colours, usually done in a way that makes them appear hand printed as opposed to a perfect digital printed.

Baring this in mind, I came across a method of printing that felt would fit in perfectly with the look I'm aiming for.

Using the fruit itself to print the textures and shape of the actual fruit itself would make for an interesting and hand rendered look, further adding to this idea of natural and organic.

Something else I wanted to have within my practical piece is this authentic, rustic type making the packaging and ultimately the product seem as though it's worth more because more time and effort has been put into each individual apple.

OUGD401: Practical Exploration (Further Ideas & Feedback)

Even though oxygen is something we don't have to physically pay for, the whole idea is based around the fact that brands can sell any product to consumers if they do it correctly. Which supports my underlying point that brands hold the power to manipulate consumers within their relationship, through using techniques such as cusps and trigger words as mentioned in previous blog posts.

Rough idea

Another route I considered going down was taking a regular, everyday product that consumers buy and packaging it in such a way that creates a more luxurious feel, ultimately fooling customers into spending more on a product that is essentially the same as other, cheaper alternatives hence the drawing above.

Rough Vectored Idea

Feedback

Within my small crit group we discussed our ideas and the feedback I got from them was positive and also very useful. They agreed and said they understood the underlying concept of the idea.

Something that was mentioned though was to possibly take my idea in a different direction, keeping the concept the same, but changing the product. That being to brand a single piece of fruit in a luxurious way to make it seem a better product than what it is. For example selling one apple for £1 in a nicely design, luxurious box when that very same quality apple would be in a pack of 5 apples for around the same price.

Some examples of high quality, luxurious packaging:

As well something to incorporate into this idea was the trigger words I was referring to in previous blog posts. Words such as natural, organic etc. will fool people into thinking the apple is something special and unique to other apples, when in actual fact it's essentially the same.