HNC Graphic Design & Illustration

Overall, I am happy with my final packaging designs. I feel that I did a good job staying true to my location and tying it in with themes of nature and purity. I initially struggled with this project as I had a specific logo and label in mind and had such bad tunnel vision working towards them that I didn’t experiment enough or try and think of different approaches. This held me back and gave me less time to work on the final product once I had experimented and decided what I wanted to do and I feel that it resulted in some of the aspects of my design feeing underdeveloped or like they could have been tailored more to my specific design. I overcame this hand improvised by still keeping the same logo pattern but replacing it with leaves and greenery to brighten it up and make it feel more natural.

My biggest weakness in the final design is definitely the vines coming down from the neck of the bottle, they were kind of an afterthought when I decided on a bottle to use for a mock up since I felt I needed to add something so the space wasn’t too empty surrounding the label. Looking back, I would definitely have spent more time on making them more detailed and helping them flow better with the shape of the bottle.

Another thing I would change is that I would give the lid of the bottle a different texture, possibly cork, since the finished wooden lid looks a bit too modern and disconnects it a bit from the rest of the designs.

The second label design I chose to look at was for Roots spirited liqueurs. This family of liqueurs was created by two brothers Manos and Nikolas Smyrlakis, inspired by their roots in the oldest distillery in Greece. The first thing I noticed about the packaging was that the shape of the logo changed depending on the flavour and it’s ingredients. There are 4 different flavoured spirits, the hexagon logo representing the honey comb for the Rakomelo spirit containing honey, the rhombus representing a crystal for the Mastic spirit, the circle representing the end of a cinnamon stick for the Kanela spirit and the cross representing the herbal aspects of the Diktamo spirit. I really like this design approach and the individuality it gives the flavours. Another aspect of the logo I noticed was that the text remains in the same place on the bottles of each flavour with just the shape of the logo changing around it. This helps keep consistency from flavour to flavour and shows that they are from the same brand but still gives them a distinct character to set them apart from the rest. As well as the logo being on the front of the bottle it is also on the top of the lid which I found to be a nice detail to add.

The first packaging and label design that caught my eye was White Pike Whiskey. Not only is it different from most whiskeys because of the packaging alone but also because of it’s bottle and colour. White Pike Whiskey is clear in colour and sold in a vodka bottle, helping to show its versatility and setting it apart from more conventional brown whiskeys but still feeling natural in the hands of bartenders and such. The brand, product identity, name and packaging for White Pike was created by Mother Design in New York.

I was immediately drawn to this specific whiskey as it really stands out against most whiskeys which tend to have more of a classic, dated or luxurious approach to packaging. White Pike looks more like a vodka at first which could potentially cause confusion but the size of the type on the front makes it easy to see that it is actually a whiskey. I really like the modern approach of the packaging style of this whiskey with the plain black covering the top half and neck of the bottle, making it bolder and more striking to help it stand out against a crowd of other spirits.

The outer packaging of the whiskey is equally bold as it mimics the same print on the bottle except in a rectangular box. Inside the box the bottle is cushioned by what appears to be crumpled up newspaper but it’s actually crumpled up paper with ingredients for different recipes of drinks you could use the whiskey in which I think is a great and unique touch and shows attention to detail in places the monochrome label and box design can’t.

www.motherdesign.com. (n.d.). Mother Design — White Pike Whiskey. [online] Available at: https://www.motherdesign.com/work/white-pike-whiskey/ [Accessed 2 Jun. 2021]. www.thedieline.com. (n.d.). White Pike Whiskey. [online] Available at: https://thedieline.com/blog/2013/11/7/white-pike-whiskey.html

Stefan Sagmeister is an Austrian typographer, graphic designer and storyteller based in New York City.

His design career began when he was 15 as he worked for Austrian Youth Magazine Alphorn. Sagmeister studied graphic design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria and graduated in 1986 before winning a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Pratt Institute in New York. He then went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Sagmeister moved to Hong Kong to work with Leo Burnett’s Hong Kong Design Group in 1991 before moving back to New York in 1993 to work with Tibor Kalman’s M&Co design company. Shortly after this, Kalman retired from the design business and so Sagmeister formed his own company Sagmeister Inc. to design for the music industry. Since then, he has designed packaging, graphics and branding for many clients including Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones, Jay Z, Aerosmith, Talking Heads HBO and Time Warner. He has received three Grammy Awards, the National Design Award in 2005, was awarded the Golden Medal of Honor of the Republic of Austria as well as being voted Austrian of the Year in 2018 by Austrian newspaper Die Presse.

Sagmeister teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York in the graduate design department. He has also been appointed at the Cooper Union School of Art as the Frank Stanton Chair.

Works Cited

“Stefan Sagmeister | Biography, Designs and Facts.” Famous Graphic Designers, 2018, www.famousgraphicdesigners.org/stefan-sagmeister.

“TypeTalk: The Typographic Expressions of Stefan Sagmeister.” CreativePro.com, 20 Jan. 2016, creativepro.com/typetalk-the-typographic-expressions-of-stefan-sagmeister/.

Jessica Hische is an American type designer, letterer and illustrator. She is based in Oakland, California after also working in Philadelphia and Brooklyn over the past 15 years.

Hische graduated the Tyler School of Art in 2006 with a degree in Graphic and Interactive design before going on to work for Headcase Design. Then, for 2.5 years, Hische took a position at Louise Fili’s studio as Senior Designer. Then in 2009, In order to have a better balance between work and personal life, she left Louise Fili Ltd to continue her career as a freelance type designer, illustrator and letterer. Currently, Hische works out of an appointment-only collaborative studio, Title Case with Erik Marinovich.

Hische has been influenced in lettering and type by many designers, including Marian Bantjes, Ed Benguiat and Matthew Carter.

Hische has produced multiple proprietary and commercial typefaces such as Brioche, Buttermilk, Minot, Silencio Sans and Snowflake. She also designed the Tilda typeface for use in the Wes Anderson movie Moonrise Kingdom.

Numerous magazines and journals have featured Hische and her work, including Forbes 30 Under 30. During her time working with Fili, Hische designed the ‘’Love’’ stamp for the US Postal Service, selling more than 250 million stamps. Hische has also designed book jackets for the novels A Hologram for the King and The Circle by Dave Eggers. Hische has worked with a long list of clients, some of which being Adobe, Apple, Etsy, Facebook Hallmark, Nike, Pinterest and Urban Outfitters.

Works Cited

“Jessica Hische.” Wikipedia, 20 Oct. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Hische.

Marian Bantjes is a Canadian typographer, designer, illustrator and writer based near Vancouver. Bantjes has been working as a designer/ in the field of visual communication for around 38 years.

Bantjes studied in 1982, before dropping out after a year and in 1983 beginning to work in the visual communication field. In 1984 began working for Hartley & Marks as a book typesetter until 1994. In 1994 she became a partner and senior designer at Digitopolis until 2003. During this time she became well known and accomplished graphic designer, creating communication designs and identity for education, corporate and art organisations. Bantjes left her firm in 2003 to independently pursue the work that gained her international recognition.

Bantjes is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) and has worked on design materials for the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) as well as The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGIA).

Since 2006, Bantjes has lectured her work at numerous events and conferences worldwide. Bantjes has had her work in many design exhibits as well as having her own solo exhibitions. Her work has been published in 100+ magazines and books around the world. Whilst Bantjes does not enter awards, she has judged for many such as Type Directors Club and Design & Art Direction.

She created and released the Restraint typeface in 2007, in which she integrated her unmistakable style of ornamentation to be used as shapes and borders.

Works Cited

“Https://Bantjes.com/.” Marian Bantjes, bantjes.com/.

Scher studied Fine Art at the Tyler School of Art in Pennsylvania, earning her Bachelor’s degree in 1970. She then moved to New York where she took her first job at Random House’s children’s book division as a layout artist. Scher then went on to work for CBS Records and Atlantic Records before co-founding Koppel & Scher with Terry Koppel.

Koppel & Scher suffered from the recession so Scher joined Pentagram, becoming a partner in the New York office and has since been a principal of the design consultancy there. She has worked for many clients, some of which being Bloomberg, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Shake Shack, the Museum of Modern Art and the New York City Ballet.

Scher says that after initially being discouraged by the limitations of working with type in art school at the time she ‘’fell in love with typography’’, explaining that it was due to encouragement from her teacher Stanislaw Zagorski who urged her to illustrate with type, bringing her to the realisation that type could be given personality and various meanings.

Some of Scher’s most mainstream work has been for Windows 8, Tiffany & Co. and The New York Museum of Modern Art.

What We Know About Climate Change by Kerry Emanuel

The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh

An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore

Since I chose to design a book jacket for The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells for my project, I researched other book covers for books about climate change as they would be most relevant to my project. 

///Penny.Glades.Diver [Carrickfergus Marina, Northern Ireland]

Overall, I am pleased with my final piece for my mural project. I feel that it adheres to the 3 words linked to the location by the What 3 Words app, whilst also staying relevant to the surrounding area. When I was given the three words for my chosen location I immediately visualised a scene which I developed my first concept to resemble. This was only helpful to an extent as it gave me a clear idea of what I was doing but it limited my initial visual responses and I held myself back from experimenting more with different compositions.

One of my biggest strengths in my final image is my incorporation of analogue techniques and images into an image created digitally. Another strength is my use of different textures in my image, I feel like they add more depth and overall visual interest to the image.

I’m a big fan of Keith Haring’s work and his pop art style. Haring conveys movement well in his murals with use of line and stick figure shapes. I like the use of vibrant colours and patterns and the way the figures flow well. Haring’s works may look simple but a lot of the figures in them contain symbols and represent more than what they appear to be, almost as if his art was his own secret language. 

“We the Youth (Keith Haring).” Wikipedia, 6 Sept. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_the_Youth_(Keith_Haring)/

Maya Hayuk’s work stands out well with it’s bright colours and bold shapes and lines. She uses eye-catching intricate patters in her work, breaking up different lines and shapes with vivid colours. Hayuk’s work has inspired me in my mural project due to the adventurous use of colours and her (usually) symmetrical compositions which she manages to fill with striking lines and shapes without cluttering them.  

“Maya Hayuk.” Mayahayuk.com, mayahayuk.com/?page=murals&id=chem-trails-2013. 

“Maya Hayuk”---. Mayahayuk.com, mayahayuk.com/?page=murals&id=oklahoma-2011. 

How to: Friend, Love Freefall

‘How to: Friend, Love, Freefall’, 2018

This album art caught my attention the first time I saw it. I really like the contrast of the clean, organised and plain foreground with the bright, sometimes scary, unknown of space. This contrast links well with the content of the album as the songs contain contrasts and contradictions within them, such as the good vs bad emotions that certain topics bring up. The ripped effect is a clever choice as it seems to be a deliberate inclusion in comparison to a clean break, much like how the ‘bad’ emotions brought out from the songs sometimes overpower and break through, past the positive ones when it comes to subjects like love in both romantic and platonic relationships. Overall I really like the design of this album cover and how it is a good representation of the album itself.

The Fall of Hobo Johnson

‘The Fall of Hobo Johnson’, 2019

This album cover is another one of my favourites, created for Hobo Johnson by Brandon Gastinell. I appreciate the blue tones in the clothes, face and flowers and how they contrast with the warm skin tone and flowers. I like how detailed the work is and the composition of it, especially the use of the white background which draws attention to the smaller details. Another aspect of the work that I like is the visible brush strokes seen on the face, I think they contrast well with the rest of the piece that, whilst still looking like a painting, looks more realistic than the blue paint covering the face.

How to be a Human Being

‘How to be a Human Being’, 2016

This album cover is one of my favourite’s because of the retro style and colour palette. American artist Neil Krug’s photographic work is featured on the cover of the album. I like the tiled effect of the border and how it follows the same colour scheme of the photograph it’s surrounding. It wasn’t until looking further into the artwork for the album that I discovered that the number of people on the cover represents the 11 songs in the album, each person symbolising a specific song on the album. The number 11 is also seen on the jersey of the basketball player in the middle of the back row. Another reason I love this album cover is the back cover and how everyone except from the man in the centre is turned around, showing their backs. These details, along with the fact that the album cover is slightly different depending on the type of album (hence the first man in the middle row wearing a suit in one of the variations), makes me appreciate the album art more as it’s clever and well thought out.

When thinking of contemporary design where colour is the dominant principle, the artwork for Nothing But Thieves’ ‘Real Love Song’ and ‘Is Everybody Going Crazy?’ singles came to mind. 

Attention is immediately drawn to the images rather than the text because of the use of complimentary colours, even when the text is in the centre of the page instead of pushed out to the edges. I think that using the same colours reversed for the different artworks was a clever idea, keeping a theme but also keeping them separate. 

“Nothing But Thieves New Single ‘Real Love Song.’” RCA Records, www.rcarecords.com/news/nothing-but-thieves-new-single-real-love-song/.

“Nothing But Thieves Release New Single ‘Is Everybody Going Crazy?’ Along With The Lyric Video via Sony Music UK/RCA Records.” RCA Records, www.rcarecords.com/news/nothing-but-thieves-release-new-single-is-everybody-going-crazy-along-with-the-lyric-video-via-sony-music-uk-rca-records/. Accessed 23 Oct. 2020.