Candy Bar - Creating Design Assets for a Candy Wrapper

CANDY BAR

Creating Design Assets for a Foil Candy Bar Wrapper

BY CHRISTY VANDENBERG
S3403150 ADVANCED ILLUSTRATION TECHNIQUES GRAP2530

Introduction & CONTEXT:

The aim of this project was to create design assets appropriate for a commercial/FMCG style candy wrapper, using combined skills in both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Dynamic colour choices, product legibility and appetising design assets were imperative in order to create a successful product design that responded to an industry style brief.

Design concepts, eye-catching customised typography and effective product illustrations were produced in order to develop these creative digital design outcomes.

I was required to create a candy wrapper design for the product title “Choc Explosion”, with the chosen ingredient being popping candy. I first began research into Japanese candy packaging to gain inspiration for my concepts and colour schemes. From here I created concept sketches and colour palettes in order to fit the requirements of my allocated products, the chosen ingredient, and to also create a point of difference in my design.

Insights:

Throughout the design process I was able to become familiar with new techniques in both Illustrator and Photoshop that allowed me to manipulate typography and create the illusion of 3D typographic artwork.

Using the offset path and pathfinder tools in Adobe Illustrator allowed me to layer my customised product title to create flat highlights, shadows and outlines on the text. These layers added emphasis to the text while creating the illusion of 3D artwork. The white offset behind the type also helped me to create added readability, separating the colours of the text from the background and allowing it to ‘pop’ and stand out.

In order to add more depth to the product title, I further manipulated the appearance of these layers in Adobe Photoshop by placing them into the document as smart objects. Using the Gradient, Bevel and Emboss effects on alternate layers, I was able to experiment with the appearance of the shadows, highlights and contours of the type, layer by layer. These effects helped me to create the appearance of shine, and accentuated the appearance of the type, transforming the flat layers of colour into 3D bubble style text.

It was important to maintain the bright colours and angles of the highlights and shadows during the editing process. Some YouTube tutorials became a valuable source of tips when adding these effects to my type. The Global light tool assisted me with this greatly as it allowed me to maintain the ‘angle of light’ throughout the editing process. It was also imperative to make slight changes to the strength and opacity of the blending modes to ensure that these effects maintained an authentic appearance and were not over worked.

My biggest challenge during the design process was editing the product images of the chocolate bar and the popping candy to create appetising product illustrations. I used the brush tools and compositing skills that I had learnt in my previous ‘Photobashing’ project to smooth and perfect the appearance of my product images.

I gained some additional skills by researching tutorials on retouching product images for advertising. These allowed me to use brushes and blending modes to add shine, highlights, shadows and washes of colour to the chocolate making it appear more desirable and idealised.

FUTURE APPLICATION & CONCLUSION:

This project has encouraged me to explore the use of colour, FMCG packaging design and the ability to utilise specific tools in Illustrator and Photoshop to create effective, eye-catching 3D type and illustrations.

I have been able to practice and further my skills when manipulating typefaces, and have learned many new ways to retouch artwork in order to transform photography into idealised creative illustrations for advertising.

Learning new ways to use the path offset tool and pathfinder tool has allowed me to gain new skills for my future designs. I will now be able to add more depth to my future design work that may require added emphasis in regards to graphics, branding or marketing material.

Experimenting with lighting, gradients, bevel and emboss tools have given me an added understanding into the world of commercial graphics and legibility in type. Learning how to transform flat shapes into dynamic 3D art has been an exciting addition to my skills as a designer. I will now be able to use these tools to enhance the appearance of any future illustrations, type design and social media content creation for advertising.

Overall, this project has taught me a valuable lesson in visualisation and has allowed me to broaden my horizons, design possibilities, and ability to produce ideas, during both the concept and editing process.

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