Transcripts
1. Introduction: I think as designers
we're both blessed and cursed the moment we
walk into a supermarket. We can't help but be
intrigued by the packaging of the product and
are subconsciously making decisions because of it. You know the saying, "Don't
judge a book by its cover"? Well, guilty as charged. I do judge a product
by its packaging. As you should,
packaging matters. It's a direct reflection
of the product inside. Open your French, order something online, walk down the street,
you'll see packaging. It's everywhere. It's everywhere because pretty much
everything needs it. I think the most
exciting part about it for me is creating
something unique that stands out and connects
with people enough to welcome it into their lives
and into their homes. What's up, guys? I'm Khadija, but everybody calls me Dija. I'm a freelance graphic
designer based in Cairo, Egypt and I love creating
packaging designs. My favorite projects
that I worked on are these limited-edition cans for
Coca-Cola and this dreamy, imaginative ice cream brown
for kids called Wonderville. So this class is
for designers and students who want to take
their skills up a notch and for packaging enthusiasts
who want to learn about the process in general
of packaging design. This class is packed
with tips, examples, and a step-by-step
actionable approach to the entire process. If you want to learn how
to go from this to that, then keep on watching,
and let's dive in.
2. Class Overview & Project: In today's class, we're going to be going over the three main principles
of packaging design. Then going over the product
I've picked for today and analyzing its
strengths and weaknesses. Then we're going to be looking
at competitor brands and analyzing their packaging
to gain some insights, and then we're
going to take those insights and put together an action plan where we'll write up exactly how
to move forward. We're then going to do some
visual research and build a mood board and then dive
into thumbnail sketching, and then refining that sketch. We're then going to move on to Adobe Illustrator where we'll digitize that sketch and build our design for the packaging. We'll be designing
the front label and the back label and then go into Adobe Photoshop to
place the design on a mockup. As a bonus, we're
also going to be discussing how you can go beyond the pack and why this is
important in today's market. At the end of the class,
It's going to be your turn. You'll pick an
existing product of your own choice
and I want you to redesign its packaging using all the steps you'll
learn in today's class. So I'm ready if
you are, let's go.
3. Three Principles of Packaging Design: Right off the board, I want to pose the main question that will trigger today's class, and that is, what's
the difference between good and
great packaging? In my experience,
I've found that it's the skillful balance of the three principles
of packaging design. The first principle is impact. A consumer will stand in front of a product
for an average of four seconds before
deciding to walk away, or to be intrigued by
it and pick it up. The attractiveness factor
and shelf visibility will determine the fate
of the packaging within those four seconds. It needs to be able
to stand out on a shelf amongst
multiple competitors, all trying to communicate the
same product and message. The second principle
is function. The package is
supposed to look good, but it's also supposed to deliver key information clearly. This needs to be communicated on the pack so that
it helps navigate the consumer through
what they need to know exactly from the product. The third principle is emotion. Design is all about
connecting with humans and while you are essentially selling a product
through the package, you want to tell a story. You want to engage the consumer and make them feel
something so they can appreciate the brand
and the product itself and feel part of it. A design package can
make someone feel safe, or excited, or luxurious, and the list just goes on. Back to our question, what's the difference between
good and great packaging? Understand and master
all three principles. Find that sweet spot, and it will stand out. You'll see throughout
the class how these three principles can be applied and you'll even notice how it affects you the
next time you go shopping, so now that that's covered, let's jump into the next lesson where we're going
to be looking at the product I've chosen to
redesign for today's class.
4. Picking a Product: [MUSIC] The product I've chosen to redesign
for today's class is a Swiss chocolate
brand called Villars. Everybody loves chocolate. I figured nobody does it
better than the Swiss. Villars was founded in 1901 and is based in a
city called Fribourg. Today I got a
couple of different flavors from the brand so we can see how the brand travels
and study its grid systems, strengths, and weaknesses. Let's dive in together and
analyze what's working, what's not working,
and what can be improved for this packaging. [MUSIC] This exercise is important because every
designer needs to have the skill to be able to break down what's visually not working and what is in order to
create a better design. Let's start from the top to the bottom and take
it from there. Starting with the logo, it definitely depicts a luxurious and high-end
look and feel for the brand to reflect
the quality of the chocolate and
its craftsmanship. The use of the gold embossing also elevates the packaging, adding the production value that makes it seem more expensive. The logo also has an iconic V, which has these cow
horns that reflects cows found in the Villar
region in Switzerland. That's a really nice
touch that makes it truly ownable to the brand. Then on the left
side of the logo, there's a long thin bar of the Swiss flag to reflect
that this is a Swiss product. It does add a sense of
credibility to the brand, but the placement of the
flag can be integrated in a more intentional
place instead of hanging on the side and
obscuring the logo space. Next up, we have a descriptor describing
the collection name of the product
also surrounded by two thin embossed lines that, again, add that elevated factor. Now the rest of the
pack is what seems as 70 percent of whitespace bordered with these pencil
sketch effect illustrations of edelweiss flowers, cows, the Swiss Alps, and just metal
elements in general. I can see that they're trying
to depict the origin of the ingredients and the city
from where it was made. The pencil sketch effect also gives me a nostalgic
feeling and a sense of heritage highlighting the long experience of
mastering chocolate. However, visually, the illustrations aren't
really popping off the pack as they should be and their placement also
seems secondary to me. It's not placed in
a way that really gives it the credit it deserves. It could be integrated better than just around
the edge of the bar. Next, we have the variant name in the middle, lait suisse. On the pack I have it says
Swiss milk, potato, potato. It's written in a
serif font to further elevate the pack into
a high-end perception. But I'm not so sure
about the black color. The rest of the pack features
gold and soft colors. The black choice here is a bit of an aggressive
decision-making. Then, below the variant
name is a product shot of the chocolate square
the bars are made of. The embossed flower is
actually the edelweiss flower, which can be commonly
found on the Swiss Alps. That's another ownable
factor to the brand. Again, owning the
nationalistic heritage of where this
chocolate was made. However, you can't
really appreciate the ingrained flower because of the angle the product shot. I feel like if it
was straight facing, it would be a, more modern-looking and b, depicting the details of the
chocolate's square better. At the bottom, the rest
of the pack just goes smaller in terms of
typographic hierarchy, where you have the rest
of the information in small body text where you can read
the cocoa percentage and additional information. Below that is another
gold-embossed icon of the V logo surrounded on either side
by two cows and since 1901, which is a classic timestamp to reflect the
heritage of the brand. On the left side is a disclaimer stamp where
it says no palm oil, pure cocoa butter,
fair cocoa, etc. The stamp increases
the credibility and trust of the brand. Some consumers look
for these kinds of disclaimers to feel
confident in the brand. Though I believe it is
necessary on the pack, I still question its placement. It's placed directly
over the illustrations and doesn't say that it took
much thought when doing it. There should be an intentional
space for everything and make it look like you literally thought everything through. All of these elements
definitely coming together speak volumes about the
quality of the chocolate. I just feel after looking
at everything individually, we can take those same
exact elements but revisit their execution,
enhance them, place them in more
intentional places, integrate them with one another, and think of design choices that really bring out the
brand's essence. [MUSIC]
5. Competitor Analysis: [MUSIC] When you're creating
a packaging design, you don't want to just
be a good designer, but a good strategist. In order to design a better
outcome for the packaging, you need to know where it's
going to stand in the market. That's why we're going
to be looking at competitor brands in this lesson and analyze their products, their packaging, their
strengths and weaknesses and notice any patterns
that are going on. This is important
because you don't want to create
something too similar or something too
alienating that confuses consumers away. Let's dive in. The competitor brands I
found are all Swiss brand, some are direct competitors and some are indirect competitors, but they generally all fall
under the same category. We're looking at Frey, Ragusa which is actually owned by a parent company
called Camille Bloch, Favarger, Cailler and the
most popular one Lindt. Although Lindt is not really
a competitor because it owns a much bigger market share both locally and
internationally, I still think there's merit in looking at the
packaging visually to see what patterns we can
adapt into our own packaging. Looking at them all I can see one common factor and that is the product shot
of the chocolate. This seems to be a unanimous
factor across all, and that means that consumers will gravitate
towards these bars of chocolate when they see
what the chocolate could look like on the
front of the pack. That's definitely something
to consider keeping. Then if we look at
each one individually, starting with Frey, we'll see that their logo is
placed inside a red square, which definitely makes them recognizable and
ownable to the brand, but the logo is a bit small in ratio in comparison
to the other brands. But it is also embossed in
gold as it is in Villars. The product shot
here is extremely visible and has that romantic, inviting art direction
to it with the glow behind it and then the
rest of the pack is white, which again doesn't really
make it stand out that much. Next is Ragusa, which from the get-go has a much bigger logo proportion
in a brown rectangle, but nothing really
special in it that will immediately separate from
other logos from afar. The product shot
of the chocolate takes a huge space on the pack, which is definitely appealing, but it is a little
bit hindered by using the same colored
background as the chocolate. The chocolate just melts into the background and doesn't
really stand out as it should. The very name also I feel is randomly placed in whatever
empty space there is. Again, this is what I was saying about intentional space. Next is Favarger. Though, this is not the completely updated
version of the pack, I did want to
highlight a few things that will help us
in our own process. First off, it definitely looks
very different than all of the rest because it has a very vintage look
and feel to it. The crafting in wordmark
is quite vintage as well. It has an old photography
family-album style illustration that depicts the
heritage of the brand. The general structure
and the grid is interesting because it's
different than the rest, where it's not divided into these rectangular
compartments, which has a nice visual
shift to the eyes to it. Next is Cailler, a
landscape chocolate bar, which definitely shifts
the grid completely. You'd have to think in a completely different way
when designing in this format. On the left is this
beautifully crafted wordmark, which takes up half
the space on the pack and it is embossed
in gold as well. The wordmark by itself
already delivers on the high-end quality of the
brand and of the chocolate. The next one is product shot of the chocolate either stacked
on top of each other or placed in a 45-degree angle with surrounding bits of crumbs
or additional ingredients. Behind that product
shot is a silhouette of a shepherd walking in front
of a cow and a meadow, which again ties
into the essence of chocolate making and a
touch of the heritage. Though that's pushed back to the background so I'd
say that the main focus of the pack is brand
recognition from their logo. The packs are differentiated by the entire bar of
chocolate changing colors, which I think makes it
stand out instead of the whitespace found in
Frey and Villars actually. Seeing blocks of colors
stacked in the shelves in the supermarket will
definitely grab consumers attention
more than the white. Last but not least Lindt. Lindt has a classic grid system that divides the pack into rectangular grids
with the first block reserved for the logo. The logo is embossed
in gold as well, but it seems to be
another common factor. Then the product shot
in a square with the same treatment as Frey
being the dark background, then the subtle glow and the
chocolate bar itself being rotated into a diamond shape
further elevating the brand. The product shot in Villars also has the same
angle as Lindts. The pack goes back to white with the very name
at the bottom. I think that Lindt has enough brand equity to
own this grid system of theirs so it's safe to say we can definitely do
something different. The takeaway from all this, like I mentioned in
the beginning is to understand the different
brands out there in the market and study
the packaging to make sure you don't design
something too alienating, that confuses consumers
away or on the contrary, design something too similar
so you don't stand out. You need to find that sweet
perfect spot and positioning that reflects your brand story and also makes you stand out. We're going to learn
how to do just that. In the next lesson,
we're going to write up an action plan from all
of these insights and define our next steps exactly so we're not lost in the
design process later. [MUSIC]
6. The Starting Point: You might be asking yourselves, where do we start? Well, you want to
put the current packaging somewhere next to you and start laying
out an action plan. Let's start with the logo. It was apparent that throughout all the competitor
brands that a gold logo with some sort of
embossed effect adds an elevated production
value to the pack, making it look more expensive. In this case, that's an
element we are going to keep. We also want to maintain the
iconic V in the logo with the cow horns because it is very reflective of the brand
name and its story. We don't want to lose
that ownability factor. However, we could work on the wordmark to
make it look more unique and appealing
like we saw in the example of the
[inaudible] brand. Next is the layout. There's a clear current
color differentiation in the pack to differentiate
the different flavors. But maybe we can
play around with the placement of
that and move it around and have a more consistent
colorful logo instead. We can also revisit the
general grid of the pack to be more interesting than the
basic rectangular grid, to make it stand out and not to look too similar to
the other brands. Then we want to maintain the concept of the
illustrations because it does tell a story of the brand's history and
the city it came from. Let's capitalize on that
heritage and really amplify it making it more modern-looking without losing that
nostalgic touch. Moving on to the product shot. This was another
common factor amongst most competitor
brands and that's an element we should
keep moving forward. But we could revisit its
angle and placement to make it shine more and pick the details and the
embossed edelweiss flower. Last but not least, the add-ons. Add-ons are any additional
elements that can be found on the pack that are miscellaneous
but add a ton of value. This is something like the
Swiss flag bar at the top. We can revisit that look
more integrated in the path. The same goes for since 1901
and the disclaimer stamp. These elements already add richness to the path
that we're revisiting, their execution and placement will elevate it even further. By writing down what
our next steps are, you can move on to
the next phase, stress-free, and
with a plan at hand.
7. Research & Moodboard: [MUSIC] So in this lesson, we're just going to be
doing some visual research, pulling out some elements from our starting point and also
looking for typography, inspiration, layout styles,
illustration styles, anything visual that can really help us build this packaging. Then we're just
going to put it into a moodboard and
discuss it together. I'm just starting off
with my browser here in Google and a couple of things I want to research based on what we've pulled out from
our original packaging. I just want to see what the
Fribourg city looks like. I want to pull some
of these images and see a certain landmark
that's being repeated. From the part, I can see
this tower that's just being repeated throughout
all the images along with this
teal one as well. Those typical Swiss brick
roof houses as well. I do want to incorporate
that into my city skyline. Another element that
I want to research is the Swiss cow bell. It does have a very interesting visual here
that I think we could incorporate as a unique
element for the Swiss culture. Now I just want to see if it has a specific meaning or any
implications behind it. This could be an
interesting element we can incorporate somehow
into the packaging. I also want to incorporate the [inaudible] cows in the
packaging somehow, maybe not. So obviously, but more
subtly I feel because these cows are mainly found in the [inaudible] region just stemming out of our brand name. I think it's kind
of a nice touch to include that really somehow. Then I also want an
image of the Swiss Alps because I feel
that would be like the backdrop of
our city skyline. Can't have a Swiss
chocolate packaging without the Swiss Alps. Then I also want to pull out images of the Edelweiss flowers. This is the flower
that's engraved on the chocolate bar itself. Maybe we can see how we
can incorporate this in the pack somehow, also subtly. This is also an interesting
pattern going on here on the Swiss cow bell
holder leather belt. We can use that somehow
into the design. I think it will be very
authentic to the brand. Now that we've pulled
out some visual research about the brand itself from different elements
we're going to place. Now I actually want to look
at different styles and art direction material that
we're going to work with. I want to first start by researching
topography references. I'm just going to write vintage typography because I want that classic vibe that comes
from an authentic brand. But then we're going to make
it more unique later on. I just want to skim through some of the references
that could help me or inspire me to
create the new word mark. Then I'm also going to
search Swiss vintage poster. I just want to see what the old posters look like
from certain archives. I want to see the type of
illustration that's used, type of typography, so we could really do
something that's authentic and nostalgic for the people who
are connected to this brand, but also open a
channel of intrigue to new customers who
have never tried this brand and get them
excited to try it. I can see that almost
all the references have this postcard feel and they all feature
the Swiss Alps in a way. We do really want to highlight the landscape and the city of where this
chocolate came from, I think that would be
really cool and really important for the
authenticity of this brand. Then I also want to look up the textures and a production
value that comes with this packaging so embossing references, gold foil printing. I just want to keep that in mind so that when I'm mocking up, I can already see what outcome
I want to go with this. As you can see something
already this simple, like the gold embossing already elevates
a brand so much, there's nothing going on here except that production value, that tactile texture
when you touch the chocolate bar or
the packaging itself. This is something
important that I want to include in my moodboard. Now I have my two
moodboards here. The one on the right is the
visual elements research, and the one on the left is
the artistic direction I want to take using
typography references, illustration layouts, and textural elements that's
going to help me later on. I just want to start by recapping the one
on the right here. I just pulled out references of architectural
elements related to the Fribourg city that I want to take with me on the pack, like the cathedral, the
tower with the teal spikes, the meadows, the
mountain landscapes, the trees, the river. These are all elements
when combined together, will make a beautiful landscape that is uniquely tailored to this very city and where the chocolate
originally came from. This is very important to
make the brands unique. Then I have elements
like the Swiss cow bell, the leather handle
coming down that has beautiful embroidered elements
like the Edelweiss flowers and the leaves and the Swiss
patch and I can really think and imagine taking
this onto the pack somehow. Then another element is
the Edelweiss flower because the chocolate square has the Edelweiss
flower engraved on it. I also think this is
a very unique element that we can take onto the pack. Maybe integrated subtly, not as obviously and just find
a way for it to be seamlessly combined
into the pack and also the Swiss Alps. The Swiss Alps is something typically you'd see
on the chocolate bar, but I do want to
push it back into the background maybe
make it a silhouette. Maybe you just use the tips
of the mountains somewhere. This moodboard is
just going to help me in the sketching phase in terms of what elements I want on the pack and
when I'm sketching, I'm just going to know where I want to place all
of these things, as long as I know which elements I'm going
to be using and which elements I want to
be depicting on the pack. This can be transferable on any other packaging
you're doing, it doesn't have to be something
culturally significant. You can just take certain elements that you want to put on the pack and pull out references for it so
when you're sketching, you know exactly what
you're sketching and you have reference
in front of you, just so you know what you're
going to be drawing exactly. Then for the second moodboard, this is the artistic direction. You want to generally pull out typography references
that's going to help you with recreating a word mark or icon references if
you're going to be recreating an icon, illustration references, layout references,
colors, textures. This is going to help you
later on when you're designing the actual pack
on Illustrator to know what kind of direction you want to take and not waste too much time looking
for a million fonts or looking for different
illustration styles. This exercise really
helps you own in all the elements and directions you want to take into
one specific direction. It'll just save
you time later on. For this moodboard, the typography
references that I pulled out are all really elegant, chocolaties, worldly typography. This is what I want to
depict on the pack, this is what I'm imagining. Currently wordmark
is a serif word mark and it's very elegant, but I do want to
add a little bit of character to it more
than just that, just to separate it
from the other brands. What I'm imagining is to
use a serif font as a base. But then I want to add these swirly elements
because it just reminds me of
chocolate being mixed, that thick fudgy scrumptious
batter being mixed. I want to add that into
the wordmark somehow. I really like the
slanted layout of it. It's much more appealing to the eye than just something
that's on the base and that's something
that's just going to cut the grid in a very unique way. I do want to add
that somehow and you can see that also
in this reference here, especially when you
add like a swirl, it does need to be
waived in somehow. I do want to add
something like that onto the pack in relation
to the wordmark. Another thing is the
illustration styles, I just pulled out these
two references here and all the references of
the illustration posters I found related to
Switzerland just remind me of a very picturesque
postcard feel. I want to take that
onto the pack, as opposed to the pencil
etching sketching style that's currently
seen on the pack. I want to take this colorful, really picturesque idea for the illustration
and just make it minimal and more structured and more modern onto
the current pack. I think it will really elevate
all the elements we talked about previously of the cathedral
and tower and all that. This is the direction
that I want to take. Another thing is this
symmetrical layout of the flowers and the leaves. It's just giving me
a very grand effect, very royal effect and I do want to take that onto the pack. I love this metrical layout of these flowers and leaves
and I'm thinking this can possibly be the Edelweiss flower just duplicated and reflected on the other side and it'd
have something like the since 1901 in it there. It just adds a lot to the
heritage of the brand and really elevates
the brand on the pack. Especially if it's going
to be in Boston gold, these little details will
make a world of a difference. Finally are these tactile
textural elements that I have here from
these references. I love the embossed aspect
here using the same color of the background and
the gold foil texture here on the logo, for example, it just
really elevates the pack. We saw that in a few references before how that elevates it. I do want to include
something like that on the pack going further beyond just the
visual aspect of it. These are my two moodboards, my visual element moodboard, and my artistic
direction moodboard. Now when I'm taking this
onto the sketching phase, I'm not going to be lost. I know exactly what I'm
going to do even when I take this onto Illustrator
with my sketches, I know exactly what
I'm going to do. This is just going to
save you a lot of time. You can do this
with any packaging, it doesn't have to be something
high-end or luxurious, if it's something
a lot more casual and fun and bold and exciting, you can do the same
exact exercise, pulling out references
that will help you. Pulling out typography
references or illustration or
product shot elements or layout elements that you like that you want to
transfer onto your packaging. I highly recommend you do this exercise before
starting any sketching, just as a guide for you, and just to explore
different ideas that will help you take that
onto your unit packaging. That said, I think I'm
just ready to take this to the sketching phase and let's
see what we come up with. [MUSIC]
8. Thumbnail Sketches: So I just got my
things set up here. I have an A4 sheet
of white paper, an eraser, pencil, sharpener, a ruler. We're just going to take all
of our ideas and elements from our starting points and start putting it to the paper. We're just going to
thumbnail sketch very, very quickly our ideas. This is important because
you need to set out all your visual ideas onto paper quickly without
wasting too much time, without refining too much, and then we're going to
pick what we like and then refine that
sketch even further. I have a total of nine
thumbnail sketches here. There are packing ideas
and different layouts. I just want to quickly discuss my thought process behind all of these quickly
so you know where all of these ideas came from. For starters, this
one over here, I was thinking to make the logo more of
the centerpiece of the chocolate bar
and really stand out instead of having it on top. I like the slanted
version of it. It just makes it a bit
more interesting than just a straight-line layout. It's a bit more
interesting to the eye when you break that
grid that way. Then I'm thinking to have the chocolate bar
come beneath it, like this, and just some Edelweiss flowers surrounding
the chocolate bar here. On the top, this would
be something constant, it is the skyline of
the Fribourg City, which is just reminiscent
of the [inaudible] history, and then the Swiss cow bell, just to add that layer
onto that as well. This is something that I'm
generally happy with them. I think it could
work really well. Then I have something like this, which is a bit more classic
in its composition sense, where you have the logo on top, then the description,
pure chocolate, and then the chocolate
square in the middle, and the skyline beneath. This one is a bit of an
interesting version, where I start to introduce
a bit more shapes and playing around with
shapes in the sketch. I have a semicircle here, where it's going to carry
the chocolate square, and also surrounded by Edelweiss flowers
and the Swiss bell. Then the logo in the middle, but a bit of more
straight version so it can match the line here
at the semicircle. Then at the bottom, you'll
find the city skyline of the Fribourg City and the
variant Swiss milk beneath it. Then these two are a
bit of a wildcard, but right off after
a sketch them, I realized they
probably won't work. But I wanted to
really capitalize on the iconic V and
V of Villars' logo. It's the cow horns on the V, and I really wanted
to capitalize on that to make it something truly unique to the
[inaudible] that when you walk by
any supermarket, you're going to know that this is the Villars' chocolate brand. But aesthetically and visually, it is very limiting
in terms of the pack. I like how symmetrical
it is here, but this space is a bit awkward to fit all the
needed information. Like we said in the beginning,
function is important. Then this one here is more of a typographic approach
where also the logo is slanted and it's going to have a very decorative
display typeface. Then the rest of the
pack will have like the Edelweiss flower
illustration ornaments. But this sketch here completely eliminates the chocolate square and I think it's
necessary as we looked over the competitor brands to have a chocolate
square on the bar. Then these two actually
quite like a lot, maybe this one for
me is a favorite. What I like here is
also the slanted logo and then the chocolate square
would go right beneath it, like that, surrounded
by Edelweiss flowers, and on the bottom, you'll
find the variant name. Then on the top, you'll find the skyline of the
Fribourg city here, along with the Swiss bell. So it does have all of the
information that we need. Then this sketch, I
just packed everything here into a device which
is long oval circle, and that will just keep
moving within each pack. Every pack will
look like this and the background color would just change to differentiate
the flavors. I think this is also very, very strong in terms
of brand recognition. But yet again, we'll
look very different than the rest of the
competitors without the chocolate square
somewhere in there. So I'm not entirely
sure about that either. I think we can start and go ahead in sketching and
refining this one may be on a bigger format so we
can really tackle all of these details and discuss how we want to move
forward with it.
9. Refined Sketch: [MUSIC] For this lesson you're going to need
another sheet of paper, your thumbnail
sketches next to you, a ruler, a pencil, an eraser, and this
time you want to grab any color media that you
feel comfortable working in. I personally like to
use color pencils in this exercise
just because I think it's quick and it's
easy to work with, but you can feel free [NOISE] to use any colors that you want. Watercolors, crayons,
pencil colors, markers, literally anything
will work on this point. You just want to bring
the sketch to life with colors so just feel free
to use anything you want. You want your thumbnail
sketches next to you. In this case, we are going to be recreating this one on
a much bigger format. Just set it somewhere aside next to you so it
can be a guide. What I'm going to do
now is I just want to draw a bigger frame to work with just so I can really lay out my composition and
see all the details. This isn't going to be anything
too detailed or refined, this is just something that's much cleaner and
neater to work with. [MUSIC] There we go. I just want to say that
you don't have to worry about being an expert
in drawing or whatever. This is not a drawing exercise. This is just a more
refined sketch for you as a guide when
you take it on to Illustrator so you can
see all the details and the composition and
the layouts much clear than a thumbnail sketch so you don't have
to worry about it being too artsy or detailed or creative
or anything like that. What I'm just going to
do now is I'm going to lightly jot down my layout and composition
with just like basic shapes, just to know where
everything is going to go, and then I'm going
to go in later and refine all the details. I'm liking how this
is looking so far. This is a good base
to start up on. I have my skyline of
the city here and I have my Swiss cowbell. I have the edelweiss flowers and logo device. I put the logo in ribbon that I feel should
be in old but it also has some subtle
mountain silhouette just to pay tribute to the Swiss mountains
and make it a bit more unique in terms
of a logo device. Then here you have
the chocolate square, that will be a real photograph. Then you have here the
flavor and information. I think I'm going to keep here the original cow horn detail. Let's spend more time in crafting the logo to
be something more dreamy and imaginative
as chocolate is. I want to tap this world, just reminds me of
chocolate being mixed so this is the general
idea that I'm going for. This is good as a base sketch. Now we want to add some
color into it so we can really play around with what
goes into the background, and what goes into
the foreground, what can stand out, what will make a really
good shelf blocking. Shelf blocking is
basically when you put so many different products
of this same brand together, they will block the shelf
because they have a lot of similar elements next to them that will create a really nice, attractive, and
impactful visual. For the Swiss cowbell on the original packaging it was
just like a red strip bar, but here I actually
want to color the bell red just to pay an homage to the
Swiss flag and I think it'll really
stand out on the top of the packaging [MUSIC]. For the skyline of the city, I think I'm going to go in
and color it with shades of green just to achieve
a monochromatic look. I think this part is
going to be a constant moving forward with
the flavors so I want it to be more of a
monochromatic look so it can allow the varying
color to stand out when we change flavors [MUSIC]. Now that I've colored
in my skyline, and I think I'm going to leave the background in
this section of the packaging white or maybe make an off-white
later in Illustrator, just because I think the rest of the pack is going to be
very colorful so I do want a little bit of contrast
here and the white will have a more refreshing
outlook on this. I think for the logo, I think I'm going to make
the device gold instead of the actual logo gold like in the current packaging. I think it's just going to
really make it stand out. I'm thinking the gold
here could also be like a gold foil printed material
and on actual color. Think the production value
will really elevate the brand. You don't have to worry
about that right now. We can always do that
in the markup phase, but that's just my thought
process out loud right now. I'm just going to color
this a goldfish color just so I can remind
myself later that this is what I want [MUSIC]. I'm not going to color
the logo in black. I'm just filling it in with a fine liner just so I can
make it stand out and it's just a mental note
for me that I want the logo to stand out so just for the sake of the
sketch I filled it in with this but none of these
colors on the sketch, our final colors or anything. Of course, we're going
to explore many, many colors on
illustrator later. But it's a good guide for
you from the very beginning. Now, for the last
section of the pack, this is where we have the chocolate square photograph
and that's just going to always be a
constant throughout every flavor and it's
just going to change. So I want the background here
to just constantly change. Everything from above here, this is always going
to stay the same. We're just going
to take this part and repeat it on
every single flavor. That's going to be
the unique aspect to the packaging and
that's what's going to be memorable for customers
to always see the city skyline
and the logo like that and everything
put together that way. This section will
change in color, and it will change in
flavor text and it'll change in the chocolate square. I'm thinking because
this is very, very busy up here so I want something to
counterbalance that. I'm just going to make this a nice solid color here and I think I'm
not going to add any more elements
in this section because I really want
this part to really stand out and let the chocolate
square shine in its own way without any more
additional distractions. [MUSIC] Hey guys. There you have that, our very own illustrated
sketch of the new packaging. We have our colors
down to remind us of the color blocking
aspects of repackaging, where we want everything to be. We have a general good
composition to work with. I'm just going to take
my phone very quickly and take a picture of this. I'm just going to take this onto Illustrator and we're going to start digitizing the sketch.
10. Digitizing Pt.1 : I've got my files set up here. I just measured
the chocolate bar and I made my art board to
that size just to make sure all the ratios are
correct when I'm mocking up and it just looks
as realistic as possible. I have also my two
more boards here, my visual elements, that I'm going to be drawing over and taking inspiration from and also my stylistic
direction of typography, illustration style,
production value, and everything that
we've discussed earlier. On the left side, I've got my refined sketch
over here just so I can always refer to it and keep myself on track
with what I'm doing. The first step is, I'm just going to start, again, laying out everything roughly just so I can have some
composition set out, and I'm going to go in and start refining each
section by section. The first thing that
I want to do is actually draw this
ribbon in the middle for the logo with my pen tool. Then I just want to go in and start adding these mountains silhouettes
inspired by the Alps. More or less
something like that. I'm going to go in later
and fix it and play around with it more if it
doesn't look right to me. I just want to put everything
on the art board first and then I'll go back in and start nitpicking all the details. Now I actually want to work on the logo just because it's the centerpiece
of the packaging, so I want to start with that? I previously purchased
this font, Brilon, off of Heritage Type, and they usually have bundles of really beautiful
vintage typography that's stylized on its own. This is a good base
I want to start upon and then I'm just going to
build on it from here on. This is the general progress
of the logo so far. Let me walk you through
what I did exactly. I just took the
form that I picked out that had a good base of
what I wanted to start with, and like we discussed
before in our sketches, I went ahead and added
the cow horns to the V. It does look different
from the current logo, but that's the point. Then I just stylized the rest of the letters to
go up in a slanted manner, and I wanted to make
the waves on the L just carry these letters basically
and have a nice form to it. Then I made the S as big
as the V here just to encapsulate the logo and
give it that grand effect. Also, I wanted to
add the swirl in the S because, like
I mentioned before, it reminds me of
chocolate being mixed and has that dreamy imagining
factor about it. Yeah. I'm just going
to leave it at this for now because
I'm going to go in later and craft it more
and just refine everything. But I don't want to
spend too much time in this phase without building
the rest of the packs, I'm just going to
leave it like this. We are going to go ahead and start laying out
this section here, which is the city skyline
of the sky Book City, and the since 1901
little timestamp here. For the Sky Book city skyline, I just want to take
these references of the landmarks because I'm
going to be drawing over them. It doesn't matter if the image is not super clear on anything, you're just going
to try to simplify all these tiny little
details and lines because that will only show on packaging that's printed
on a smaller size. You just want to take the
general look and feel and add your own stylistic
lines to it and make it a lot simpler and minimalistic
than the actual image. I'm just going to use this
image here for this tower and this other tower
with the teal spikes. I also want to use this image to also illustrate these
little brick houses. I also want them to be in a
monochromatic look to blend in with the greens of the meadows and the
mountains in Switzerland. I just want to have
a color palette here that's in monochromatic green. I'm just going to leave it at three
colors for now because I don't want any
more colors in that. I just want to turn the
opacity of this image down, maybe to 60, so I can see what I'm drawing. Just to save you guys time, because this could
take hours on end, I went ahead and did the two other
elements that we're going to be putting
in our cityscape, which is this time tower and
these brick houses that I just drew over from the images. These are the brick
houses and this is the tower that I
drew over as well. Now, they're not exactly
identical and that's fine. I think the most important thing is just to get the gist of it, just certain features that would immediately remind
someone of the city. That was the point of that. I'm just going to group
these elements together. Then I want to take this on to my packaging layout to see
how I'm going to place them. What I want to do
is actually draw a meadow or mountains
in a symmetrical way, so one of the landmarks
can go onto here and brick houses could
go onto the right, and then that would
create for us a nice empty space here at the top so we can put the
rest of our elements here. Now I have a general base for the meadow, and I just placed the
elements on top of it. Now we actually just want
to draw or illustrate some grass around the meadow so it's not just a
block right there, so I just want to
add some silhouettes of grass at the top here. Then I also want to add
shrubs of grass to cover little bits of the monuments so it doesn't look just
placed on there, I want it to look
integrated into the scene. That's what I'm going to do now. For the grass that's going
to cover the monuments, I'm just using basic circles the same color as the meadow. I'm not going to
draw actual grass, this is just going to give the illusion that
there is grass, or shrubs, or bushes
covering the monuments. I'm just going to play around
with different shapes and placements so it look as
realistic as possible. Then I'm just going to take some of
these grass strokes and add them little bit around the meadow here just to bring some dimension
and depth into it. Now what I want to do now is
actually draw or illustrate a river coming in from here
and then ending there, like in our sketch. Because one of the
images here had a river, so I think that would be a nice addition to the
composition as well. I want to add the Villars
cow right about here. There's a nice, empty spot
for it grazing in the grass. Remember when we were
saying that we want to include this cow because it
reflects the brand name, and these cows are particularly famous in
that region especially. So I think that will be a
nice touch to highlight that and bring the authenticity
of the brand even more. Now that we have a general composition
for the cityscape, which I'm pretty happy
with so far but I might go in later and refine
it even further, I want to move on
to the top part here where we're going
to write since 1901, possibly feature the Swiss bell and the edelweiss flowers, and just add on all these garnish material that's going to really
elevate the brand. I know in my sketch that I had a Swiss cowbell and it had
significant meaning to it, that's why I want
it featured and I like the way it look so far, but I was noticing on one
of the references that most of the Swiss patches
are in this shape. So I'm thinking
that could be more relevant in this case
than putting the bell. It is also evident
on this bell also, this sort of shield shape. What I did here was just illustrate
the Swiss patch and add these embroidery
elements just to give it a little bit of texture like
in this reference here. Then I also illustrated the edelweiss flowers
similar to the ones here, just made them more geometric
and a little bit more minimalistic so it can
function better on the pack. Then I drew around
these leaves and just reflected it on the other
side so it's a nice, symmetrical look that kind of engulfs the shape of the patch. I also added these embroidery
fill-like lines stitches here just to give it a
little bit more texture. Then I just added a little
edelweiss flower here at the bottom just to fill in the space and enclose
the shape nicely, and Mastering Chocolate
just comes underneath. I'm just looking at
this and I'm wondering if it would look better if this is all in gold so the patch
would really stand out, and having this in embossed
gold foil would really elevate the brand
instead of the green and to keep the
green all in here. So I just want to try that really quickly and see
what it looks like. Maybe we can make
the logo device also gold for now so I can
see what it looks like. Yeah, you see how
that really pops off now and this ties in with this? So then cityscape
would really make some contrasts between the gold
and the white space behind. Now I want to see
what will happen if I add in the rest of
the composition, which will be our color block. Let's just pick
any color for now. I'm not going to be too picky
about this at the moment. Then our chocolate square
would go right here. Now looking at this, I think the logo might be too slanted and two diagonal
for me at this point. So I might try actually
straightening it out just a little bit so I can see if that fixes the
balance at all. Already I can see a massive difference for me. The new orientation of the logo for me
looks a lot better. I think it just looked too
slanted for me at this point. I think this is just
enough of a slant for me, but I need it to be
straightened out a little bit. As for the top part, I think the gold really stands out more than the
gold and green. It just provides a
better contrast between all the sections and your eyes know where
to look at first, and it navigates the user or the consumer better that way. It even serves the chocolate
bar much better now. Now I actually want to
build the rest of the pack. So let me just write
the variant's name and any other elements that we're going to put
at the bottom here. I wanted to write
the variant name in a serif font like the current packaging because I feel like serif fonts really elevate the pack and it goes well with
the overall look and feel. But I still wanted it to
be a little bit thick enough and not too thin so you can still read
everything and it's clear because sometimes when
serif fonts are too thin, kind of just gets
lost in the pack. Then I wanted to
counterbalance that with the description
of cocoa butter, or 30 percent cocoa, or whatever description that's going to go underneath with a more condensed sans serif font that's providing some kind of contrast so they
don't look the same, and it just gives a better typographic
hierarchy that way. Now I actually want to add the stamp that said
pure cocoa butter, and fair cocoa, and no palm oil
right about here, but I do want to make the composition a little
bit more interesting. So I'm going to go ahead
and try to do that now. Because we have three different quality claims, I just divided it into
three sections: one that arches with the
circle on the top and one that arches with
the circle at the bottom, and then fair cocoa
just blown up to provide some interesting
typographic hierarchy. I wanted also the
stroke to be in a gold foil-like theme logo
device here so it just pops out and ties in with the rest of the gold
all around the pack. I just made the
text just a little bit darker color
than the background because I don't want
to make it white so this stays standing out. I don't want to make
it black either, so that was best
solution for me. I just want to rotate it just a tiny little bit so it looks
like a stamp of some sort. Stamps are usually not
perfectly centered and aligned, so this is just a
little touch there. Then I have my net
weight information here at the bottom right, also in a darker-colored
background. Now what I want to do
is I actually want to see what this
packaging will look like if it travels onto
other variants and flavors because that's how you usually know if the
composition is right. You just need to see
it repeated next to each other as if
it's on a shelf, and then you'll get a
better understanding and view of the overall composition. I know that in our sketch here we said that we wanted to keep the upper part monochromatic green and consistent
all throughout, so this is like a certain device that you just keep repeating, and the bottom part
would be the colors changing from every
variant in one to another. But as I'm looking
at it right now, I just think there
are too many colors going on and there's nothing specific that is very obvious that keeps
repeating all throughout. So to solve that, I actually think I might make the top part monochromatic
as the color of the variant, and I'll show you
what I mean by that, but I think it'll just provide
better color blocking, and then the logo and the Swiss patch on the
top would be much more apparent in popping out when the rest of the pack
is monochromatic in colors. Let me just try that out and see if it's
actually going to work. This is just an easy way to change the color
of something. I'm going to select the
midtone green, for example, and then go to Select, Same, Fill and Stroke. It's just going to select all of the green that I've selected, and I'm going to make it
into the background color. Then I'll select the lighter
tone of the green, Same, Fill and Stroke, and then just make it a much lighter color of
that blue shade. Then the darker green, I would do the same, select all, then select the blue, and make it darker shade. Already this looks much, much better because
now the logo really stands out as well as
the top part here, and you can still see
the cityscape and everything is just a part
of the background now, which is a nice, subtle touch. I'm really liking this more
than this version over here. I'm just going to repeat this
for all the other variants so I can see what it looks like when they're put together, and so I can assess further if I need to do anything else. For me, this is a much, much
better option when we have the entire pack monochromatic and then the logo
really stands out, and so does the Swiss patch. So everything is a lot
more balanced now. Even if I zoom out, you can see a clear pattern
that's being repeated, and the cityscape still shows, it's just pushed back
into the background. So I really like the overall
composition of this now. The next thing I'm noticing is that I actually want to
create shelf blocking. What I want to happen
is that I want this ribbon to be continuous. Right now, it just
cuts off at the top and doesn't really blend
in with the next one, so I just want to adjust the ribbon to form
a wave almost. When they're put next to
each other on the shelf, it will create a really
nice shelf-blocking effect. You can see now what I've
done with the ribbon, I just adjusted the side so
it dips into the next one. Now when they're all going to be put next to each
other on the shelf, they're just going to
complete each other in the seamless wave and the mountain tops as well
complete each other. It's those little details that really make a
huge difference, and it looks like you
really thought of everything and you've made
everything intentionally. I'm really liking how this
is looking right now. Now, the next step is actually
the chocolate square now. So far I just have it
as a vector square just to see its placement and
coloring against the background. Now, we actually want to put the actual chocolate
square into place. I'm just going to
go into Photoshop. What I have here is
the chocolate square that I retouched
from Shutterstock. I just took a picture
from the website that looked closest to our
chocolate square, and then I just embossed
the edelweiss flower on top and retouched
it a little bit so that it looks like
it was a 3D model. Now, usually in a
real-world scenario, the brown is supposed
to provide you with the 3D product of the
chocolate square. But for the purpose of
this class and just for the learning environment,
I just did this. But naturally, we'd either need to have a 3D product shot, or purchase a proper image, or do a photoshoot
for whatever kind of images you're going to be
putting on a commercial pack. But for the sake of this class, I just went ahead and did
it, prepared it beforehand. We're just going to take
our chocolate square, and then we're going to
open another window, and I already resized it to our art board from
Illustrator because we're going to move this onto here so we can lay over the isolated
chocolate square and add some nice shadows to it and highlights and see how it looks
like in the overall pack. Now we can drag our
chocolate layer onto here, and we want the chocolate to
come underneath the logo, and we want the entire flower to show and just cut off
at the edge almost. This is looking good so far. I'm really liking this. Now we just want to add some shadows underneath the chocolate so
it looks like it's placed on the background and looks a bit more realistic than just hanging down the
logo device like this. What I like to do is just
create a new layer underneath the chocolate and
pressing Command, and then onto the layer, it's just going to select
the shape of this. You can do this with
any shadows in general, and then I'm going
to select with my color picker the
background color. Then with my paint bucket, I'm just going to say fill. I'm going to set the
transparency to Multiply and just drag it around
a bit further down. Then I want to make the
saturation a bit less, and same with the lightness. I'm going to go to Blur, Gaussian Blur, and then
blur this out a little bit. Cool. Then I actually want to add a shadow right
beneath the ribbon here and on the top here just
so the device can really pop off and it doesn't
look like it's just glued to the background. I just want to have
some dimension here. Again, I'm going
to create a layer underneath my local device, and I'm going to
select the shape. I don't need to draw this with
the pen tool or anything. I just selected the shape like
this by clicking command. Again, I'm going to go with my paint bucket
and fill that in. You see already how
much better that looks? It just provides a little
bit more dimension when you add some nice shadows beneath
the chocolate square, and some shadows to separate the logo device from the background so it looks
like it's a bit popping out. I'm just going to do
this for the rest of the variants and flavors, just so we can see how it all looks like next to each other. I'm going to pull
this PSD back into Illustrator and put them together and see
what they look like. Here we are. After adding the product shot and the shadows and everything, I'm really loving
the outcome so far. I think this is even going
to look better once we add the texture of the gold foil
for all the gold bits here. It's just going to really, really elevate the brand, and already this
is looking great. You have the impact from
the color blocking, you have the story from
the city it came from, you have all little details that tie into the Swiss culture, and the layout is very balanced. You have a symmetrical
layout here, and then something
that breaks the grid with the wave of the ribbon
and the device here, and the consistent repetition of the square block is really
appealing to the eye. Now, we're not going
to just stop here. The back of the
pack is also very, very important and a lot of people tend to forget about it. It's just a place to slash on the ingredients
and that's it, but people do look over the back of the pack
and it would be so nice if we can tell the story
of the brand on the back, and the history of the brand, the history of chocolate
making and all of that using the
same elements and colors so that it's all complete and one cohesive
and consistent design.
11. Digitizing Pt.2: [MUSIC] I've just got my file
setup here on Illustrator. I just have my front of the pack back to form
and that we adjusted on Photoshop with that
product term and shadows that I'm just going to be mainly using this one for
the back of the pack. I can just select all of these different
elements if I need to move them onto the back. Then on the right side I have the actual picture on the
back of the pack that I have. I just want it next to me, so I can know which
elements I want to revisit, and we can see before
and after side-to-side, so you can see a
difference in the end. You just wanted to empty artboard the same
size as the front. You can just know the measurements and the
sizes of your working. Now what I want to
do is I just want to examine the back of
the park and see any elements that we want to keep and which ones we cannot, we use on the back. At the very top here
there's something very interesting where for each variant they have a different description of how this specific
variant was made. This is for the Swiss milk
chocolate and that actually changes with the dark chocolate and the white and the blonde. This is actually a very
nice touch that we can use. We can add a did you know part somewhere in there and
make it like a story. Then we have these really
nice icons of Swiss sugar and Swiss milk is just
more quality stamps to the chocolate that
will be elevated. I think we can use those, but we can redraw
them in a way that fits the illustration
style more. Then we have the reinforced
alliance stamp here, which I also think is
important to include as just other quality stamp that I think needs
to be on the pack. We can just examine
their placement. Then the rest of the pack is
just plain text basically, and the nutrition information and all that and
just the barcode. There's no really a story here and clearly doesn't match
what's going on here. This is what I want to do. First thought I'm thinking
as I want to just duplicate this
meadow that I have right here and keep
the same format where 80 percent is color filled here and keep the white on top. Just so it's like continues
this scene basically. Then I just really
want to write a story. I went on the Villar
website and I just read through the history and the story of the brand, and I'm just going to
use the text off of that and use some kind
of storyline here, maybe extend the river
somehow all the way down, and we can use the
areas on the right, on the left to say the story, and we can also explore other architecture elements
from the city of Fribourg. Besides the cathedral on
a tower and the houses, we can try to find
other elements of architecture
that are found in the city and actually apply them on the pack just so
it's a bit different. It doesn't look like we just copy and paste at the
front, on the back. I just want to start by
copying this section. [BACKGROUND] I pulled out another image of other
architecture that can be found in Fribourg and actually on the
very left of the cathedral, which we have here, is this beautiful arch
bridge over here. I felt that actually
would make a lot of sense to actually put it on the back of the pack and
just complete the scene. I think this arch bridge right across the pack here would
look very interesting. Then we can have a title on top, a title of a story in a
little paragraph here, for example, which is
taken from their website. Then underneath the
bridge here you'll find an actual river. I think this is actually perfect and makes total sense to have the river flow
underneath the bridge. Then we can just utilize the space around to
write the story, to write any interesting, did you know facts or
something like that. These are my initial
thoughts and just want to have a go at it and see
if it actually works. [BACKGROUND] I just got this
Rainforest Alliance logo here just from the Internet, just a P&G for now because we don't have the
actual AI5 word. I'm just going to resize it and I think
it'll look nice next to the icons that I redrew
from the packaging here so that there are
three icons together. I'm just going to set the
transparency to multiply. Let me just recur quickly
what I did so far. I built or drew the bridge, the arch bridge from
the reference here, from the Fribourg city, and then I just extended
the river all the way down. We can have more room to explore some storytelling and just
has a very nice visual, and then I left the
part of the bottom, right below the river here, part for the ingredients, and then the three icons, three sugars with
smoke and cocoa. I just redrew this
over these ones. I just feed them a
bit more modern, and I think I'm going
to leave this area for a barcode that we
can customize later. For the top, like I said, I just wanted to have a
title as if it's a title of a story with a drop cap effect. I just use the same
font as I did for the logo just so it can tie
in everything together. This is straight
from their website. They had a title that said, for now is everyday
Switzerland and this is a really nice poetic
storytelling paragraph that I found from their
website actually. I thought that would
work really well. I like having it in gold and
I would think I would make the title in gold foil
like the logo here, just so the production value
also ties in with the front. But I think I'd read the text just as a
printed gold because I think it would be
legible to read if it was a certain kind of material. I'm really loving
this look so far. I feel like it almost
looks like a book cover. It's just very poetic and have a storytelling
effect to it, which is just what we wanted. Now what I want to
do is I want to fill in these areas with
actual information. Like we said, we can write this part about the
chocolate-making process here. We can add a little
bit more history about the brand, for example. We can add more houses from these ones over here just
to fill in any gaps. I want every space of
the pack to be utilized. I don't want any awkward
or weird or empty spaces that are unnecessary, so this is what I'm thinking, and maybe we can add up just a few houses on
the top here as well, but I don't think
it's necessary. Let's not forget our Villar cow. Somewhere in there, we can just have the graze
from the grass really. [BACKGROUND] All right guys. This is what I did with
the back of the pack. I'm going to walk you through all the little
details that I did. As you already know, these are our three
icons at the bottom. I just added some grass
to it down below, so it just looks more
integrated in the pack and not just placed on there, and you have their labels
underneath each one. The bar code also has
some grass coming out of the lines as
well just a nice touch to bring everything
together and then the net weight on the right side. This is like a nice and fall of little icons and information. Then above it as little
note for the ingredients. I just placed
placeholder text for now just to get the gist of
everything and no placements. Then by the river, you
have on left side and the did you know
section where it says this information about the
chocolate conching time and how the traditional
recipe is made. It's also marked by these trees with some snow
coming on top just to mark that this is a piece of information and the
same far here as well. This is just a piece of
history from their website. It's about the founder
and the history of the company in
general and Fribourg, the founder behind it Wilhelm Kaiser and also has one of these trees
and I put one of the backward with Villar
cow next to it and just some other secondary trees pushed to the back
and a blue color. Then we have some
typical Swiss houses here taken right from the front. I didn't want to take
the exact composition, but I did take the same houses, and I just put them here
just because there was an empty space here that I
wanted to typically fill in, and I also added the grass. It just looks more
integrated in the pack. Then I added actually
like a telefreak. I know it's not completely native to the city of Fribourg, but it is next to the
Alps and I feel this is another element of
the Swiss culture that's very prominent, and it's very well known, and I just wanted to add something that would
break the grid of the overall pack and
just swoosh in there. It's a nice balance to the
eye because your eyes go from left to right to left
and then down below. At the top, we have our story
and our title and our arch bridge cuts through and makes a
very nice visual. I was going to add some
houses at the top here, but I felt there's
already a lot going on. I don't want to make
it too cluttered, so I felt like this
was enough down here, and I just added more grass
on the top just to make the outlines of the meadows just more integrated and softer. The last touch I did was because the title here is going to
be an embossed gold foil. I wanted just accent
colors in the rest of the pack just to tie
this in together. I just wanted to color the trees also in gold and I feel
like if this was embossed, this would be really nice, and as well as the
telefreak the line, that just cuts through. It's just more
balanced that way. I wanted to have a little
bit of gold here to tie into the title. Look at the difference guys, let me just remove this picture. We just took the same icons, the same text here. We just placed them
in different ways, and we just made a more interesting visual story that goes with the
front of the park. When you pick this up, and
I'm turning it on its back, it's not completely
alienated from each other. They do have to complete
each other in a way. I do like how also the meadows here just
complete each other, and it'll wrap
around really well. This is it guys. This is our pack, and I'm really happy
with the outcome. I feel like we have a lot of
the important elements down. We have storytelling of this beautiful city and its
chocolate-making culture. Now, for the fun part, we're going to go and mock
this up and make it look beautiful and presented really well the way it's
supposed to be. I'll see you in the next lesson. [BACKGROUND]
12. Mockups: [MUSIC] [BACKGROUND] Now that you've finished your design on Adobe Illustrator and
you're happy with it, it's time to mock
it up on Photoshop. Mockups are super important because they can make
or break your design. It's really important
to showcase your design the way it deserves because it will really impact the viewer's perception
of the product. I just have Photoshop set
up here with my mockups. I downloaded these off
of Envato Elements. They're just different angles of chocolate bar mockups
that I think look good. I might just play around with the shadows here and
adjust them a little bit. Then this is another mockup
here that I really liked with the chocolate bar on the side and a little
bit of the foil opened, it just has a different
outlook on mockup, which I really like. What I want to do is
just take the design from Illustrator
and start placing it on the mockup and
see what it looks like, and,yeah, we'll just
take it from there. [MUSIC] I'm actually layering over the design onto the
mockup right on top. I'm not using the smart object here because I just want to keep layering things
over on top of each other so we can add
separate textures to them, so I don't want to use the actual smart object because then that would alter
the effects on it. This, just for me, is easier. I like to be more in control of what's on top of the mockup, so this is just what
I'm doing right now. [MUSIC] Now that I have most of the design layered
onto the mockup now and separated into
layers of each section, like the stamp, and then the very name, the logo, the
chocolate, since 1901, and I wanted to separate them because we're
going to be adding this gold texture that I
just caught off of Google, and I want the layers to be
separate so I can select only certain elements to
be shown on this texture. Yeah, I just want to see
what it looks like now, so I'm just going to
create masks from this texture onto these layers that I want to be in gold, and we'll see how that
will transform the pack. [MUSIC] You see now after
adding the gold foil texture to the logo device ribbon and little details
on the stamp here, how it elevated the pack, and just really
brought it forward, just adds really
nice textural touch to the pack itself
and more dimension. Now, what I want to do is I actually want to add
a little bit more of a realistic shadow to
chocolate bar underneath it. When the chocolate bar's so
close to the background, the shadow should be
as close as possible to the chocolate bar
and not so far away, especially when I made the
background the same color. Because I want the chocolate
bar to really stand out, so I just want to add a little bit more shadows
to the chocolate bar. [MUSIC] This last touch that
I want to add is this paper texture that
I also got online. You can find a lot
of free textures online for a paper like this. This is just something
that'll give the mockup a little bit more texture so it doesn't look
completely flat. If it were to
actually be printed, I would imagine that people
would have some texture just to add to the whole tactile
feel of the chocolate bar. Just want to multiply
this onto that, and as you can see here, it just gives the chocolate bar a lot more texture
and it just adds to the whole storytelling
aspect of the brand. But I want the paper
texture to come underneath the gold foil textures here so those can still pop
off the background. I just want it to be
placed on the background, on the meadow, and
everything else that comes beneath the gold foil. I just want to move this
around a little bit. [MUSIC] There you have it. I just layered the paper
texture underneath the gold foil textured logo on the chocolate bar so it
can stay clean as it is. Underneath any gold foil
textures on the top, those can really pop off
and then just presents very realistic
texture and look and feel of how the actual
chocolate bar could look like. This is the difference I
was talking about when working on a vector
file like Illustrator. You have a good base, but with mocking up, you really have a
chance to bring forth all of these elements and really elevate them
with textures, and shadows, and
highlights, and all that. I'm really loving how
this is turning out, and I'm just going
to repeat this for the other angles and the
other mockups that I have just to see
what this would look like in other perspectives. I just wanted to start
with a top view just so you can see
everything very clearly. I just want to repeat this throughout all
the other angles and even the other variants as well to see how
this will travel. I just went ahead
and did the rest of the mockups for the
rest of the variants, and I just want to
walk you through it. This is the blonde or caramel
variant for the chocolate, and I just did the same thing with the
gold foil textures, the paper texture, and everything
with the colors we already picked out
in Illustrator. [MUSIC] Then this is
the dark chocolate, it's just a darker
shade of the blue from the milk chocolate because
usually in the market, they're similar in colors
just different in shades, [MUSIC] and then white, [MUSIC] and then our milk
chocolate that you saw before. Then I started adding
different angled mockups. This is from the side
so you can see how the chocolate bar folds
over to the side. In this case, the ribbon for the logo just folds over on
the side in complete set, and so does the
illustration of the houses, it just almost slides
over on the side as well. Then I wrote Swiss milk
chocolate on the side, and then repeated the Swiss
batch as well on the side. When they're stacked
together vertically, they just all look
the same and uniform. [MUSIC] Then this
is another mockup with the actual chocolate
on the side with the foil. It just gives more dimension to the chocolate to
see what's inside. I just duplicated the product
shot of the chocolate off of the pack onto the
chocolate bar on the left. [MUSIC] This is a side-by-side
of the front and the back. Then you can see in
the back now I added the gold foil texture
to the title, to the little trees down below, and the cable car, so just really
pops off and gives nice accent color
without being too much, without overshadowing
the front of the pack. Looking at them side-by-side, you can see that there's
a continuation to the story by the
flow of the river, and the similar architecture, the cow, and the
trees and the meadow. This was the whole point, is to just continue
the story on the back. [MUSIC] Then this is just another angle of
the front and the back, and you can see the mockups
here just very simple, very clean, nice shadows. The main design is
just popping off and you can really
see the textures. This is just a collective
artistic direction mockup. Just duplicated the top view and just copied it around
into this format. It just gives a bigger impact of what the design
can feel like. This is just another
close up of an angle. You can really see
the texture of the gold here and
the paper texture. It almost looks like a very subtle faded
texture of the grass, which I really love because it's not an illustration anymore, it's a tactile feel really, and it really elevates the brand so much
more than what we had as a flat illustration
on Adobe Illustrator. This is just a collective of
all the different colors, so you can just
see how the brown travels when it changes colors. This is another mockup with these very soft
window shadows and a palm tree shadow just tying everything in together within nature elements of the pack. [MUSIC] Then this is what
I meant by shelf locking. I just got a picture of a supermarket shelf
and I took our design, I just duplicated it
in the shelf form. This is what I meant where
you need to have an impact. The impact here, immediately
you see the logo just continuing like a wave and
it really grabs your eye. Then you see the repetition
of the chocolate square, see the repetition of the
top part all throughout, and that really
makes an impact of those four seconds when
you walk by a shelf. There is no clutter,
there's nothing. You really need to grab the consumer's attention and then when the
consumer picks it up, they will discover
that there's a story. It's like a step-by-step
approach here. Then finally, this is
the before and after. I always like to
do this at the end of any mockup presentation, just so I can really see
the difference at the end. Just as a quick recap, you can see we took the exact
same elements almost off the pack and we just completely
reimagined them together. We reimagined the logo and gave it much more presence
on the pack and made it pop a lot more by basically inverting
the gold here, making the logo itself
embossed white, but also placed on this gold mountainous ribbon just so it can really pop off. Then we changed the position of the Swiss flag and made it into a Swiss patch inspired by those found on the
Swiss cowbells. Then they're basically adorned by these edelweiss flowers, which also ties
into the culture, and then a signature slogan of mastering chocolate adding
authenticity to the brand. Then we took all of
the illustrations in the existing pack, where there is a meadow, and cows, and edelweiss flowers, and the Alps, and we just reimagined it and made it truly unique to the city where this specific chocolate
originated from. You're adding another
ownability factor that not a lot of other competitor
brands can really own. We also took this tab
down below and we placed it in the exact same
place it's been to almost, but we just changed around
the typographic hierarchy, making it look a
lot more premium, and we kept the gold embossing of it like in the existing pack. It's just not overlapping any illustration [inaudible] up, so everything now has
an intentional space. The product shot even now has a more visible and
intentional space where it's just laid flat as a top view so you can really see the embossed edelweiss flower as opposed to what
it was angled. Last but not least, we just inverted the layout, so on the left side layout had top part colored and then
rest of the pack was white, and that wasn't really
making a big impact. Whereas on the right side, we just switched that up. We made the top part white
and then the rest of the pack colored and in
monochromatic colors. This will really make an impact on the shelf as you saw before. The colors really gravitate
a consumer's eye, so I thought this was a
much better solution than having most of the pack white
as you can see on the left. That's pretty much it. That's how I usually approach
redesigning any product. I was really excited to walk
you guys through my process. You can stop here and be very proud of yourself
and the outcome, everything looks good,
everything's good to go. But if you want to
take your skills just up a notch and really
add that seasoning, you want to take this
packaging beyond the pack, and you're going
to learn how to do that in the next lesson. Nowadays, packaging is
like building a brand, and you really want to
see how this package travels across
multiple channels that connect with consumers in a different way
and really builds that emotional
connection with people [MUSIC].
13. Beyond The Pack: Now that you've finished mocking up
your designs and you're super happy with
the presentation, this is a bonus
lesson for you to know how to go beyond the pack. In today's market, packaging doesn't just stop at
the product itself; it goes beyond that because
you're building a brand, you're connecting
with the consumer. So you need to go
beyond that and figure other channels where you can
connect with your customers. In this lesson,
we're going to be learning how to do just that. I want to first start off with this brand as a case
study to show you how they transformed product
into a campaignable brand. This is a brand called Hippeas. It's a healthy snack
made from chickpeas. The pack features a colorful
and cheerful design with an iconic wink smile. But to make this pack
bold and impactful, they went beyond that and
created a campaign out of it. They use the elements
on the pack like the smiling wink and
the chickpea and activated the brand on
embroidered denim patches, '70s inspired billboards to communicate the
hippies of today, a wordplay on the brand name. They extended the design
to vehicles, tote bags, boxes for multiple packs, outdoor signs featuring
witty messaging, social media posts featuring various uses of the
icons and typography. Because the concept behind
the branding is a twist on the '70s hippie visuals,
they created pins, vinyl records, miniature
'70s Volkswagen van, and a wordplay on John
Lennon song from the '70s. All of these items together go well beyond the
chickpeas snag brand. They're building a brand that is relevant to people and
invites them to be a part of the brand and loyal
to it far beyond the pack. Now every brand needs
a tailored activation, so it wouldn't make sense for
our chocolate brands make embroidered denim
patches or enamel pins. But we can think of other ideas
that would pair well with this chocolate brand and build
an activation plan for it. I brainstormed some ideas
for the activation. When I was thinking
of luxury chocolate, I'm thinking it can be giftable. From that end, we can create
gift boxes, gift cards, a postcard from Fribourg that
comes with the chocolate, an elegant mug for
hot chocolate maybe, and a gift bag. Then comes social media. We can extend the
brand's story into photography styles
of Switzerland, the process of chocolate making, and the product itself. Then for the messaging, we can create storylines of the product's origin
using elegant typography. Using all of these
elements together and bringing it
together will really, really activate the brand
far beyond the pack. It just shows that the
brand has a lot more to offer beyond this product. Then whenever people
would go on buy Villars, they wouldn't think of it now
as just a chocolate brand, but as a destination to buy themselves or someone
else a nice gift. Alrighty right, guys, so I just took the ideas
that we came up with just now and I just started
applying them on mock-ups, really nice mock-ups, just to show what they would look like. This would be within the rest of the presentation along with
the other product mock-ups. Starting with the gift bag, this is a mock-up I got. This typically would be not the shopping bag that
people would buy from, but this would be something like limited edition gift bag. If someone would go to the store and they
want it as a gift, then they would ask
for this gift bag and it's something
very special that also has the gold foil embossing
on it on the logo. Then I also use the mountain
silhouette from the ribbon. I just expanded that
and made it white, and the background gold. Just as a novelty factor, just so it doesn't
look exactly like the chocolate bar but inverted. It has a little bit
of features that reminds someone of the
chocolate bar design. This is just something extra that elevates the brand
on another level. Then this is the gift card
that we talked about earlier. Also, it has the same white
mountainous silhouette with the background
and gold foil, and the logo is also embossed
in gold at the front. But then when you open it, the background is colorful and it's taken
from the design of the chocolate bar and the actual gift card
underneath isn't gold, just elevates the brand. I just took one of the gift cards and I
just multiplied them and duplicated them
all around so it has that collective effect. On the inside, when you open it, you'd actually find
a nice message that says treat yourself
and it just feels very grand and giftable in that sense and it's
also embossed in gold. Then the actual gift card, I chose it to be in gold
because it reminds me of like these platinum
credit cards, for example, where it just feels a lot more
elevated in that way. So I wanted to include
that on the gift card itself and also have the
logo embossed in white. These are all just features
that elevate the brand. If you're a gifting someone, they will feel
that this brand is actually very luxurious
and expensive, and that was the
goal in the end. I also wanted to tie it in with the original
design by having the illustration
of the cityscape push back into the background. Then this is the gift box. What I'm imagining here is that this gift box is
rectangular and it would have like four chocolate flavors stacked on top of each other. So instead of buying four separate ones and just giving it to someone like that, they would actually buy
this collection box. Because it has a lot
of different flavors, I want us to actually color our design on the front
in multiple colors. In our original design, it's in monochromatic colors. But because this
is the collection, I just wanted it to
be super colorful. I think it just looks very Christmassy and very
giftable in that sense. I just colored the river blue, I made the meadow a bit
like a teal green color, and I colored the brick
houses and the tower and the cathedral in
that brick color. I also included at the bottom the collection also
in embossed gold, and it has underneath
it the flavors, what's inside, so you can
know what's inside that box. That's one thing. Then this is another gift box that's just a bit of
a different format. It's like a tin box
that's more squared, and I think it would maybe have one of the
smaller chocolates, for example, that you'd
see on the store. It's just like a different
imagination of the gift box. Because it's a different
format and it's a bit smaller, I removed the ribbon here and I just pushed the logo
on its own at the top. Just so the illustration could really be the visual
hero of this gift box. The collection is also
embossed in gold foil. This is just my
imagination of it. This is the postcard. Remember, we said we'd include a postcard that comes with the chocolate
when you buy it, also as a present. It will remind someone of where this chocolate
originated from. You have the logo embossed
in white at the top, and the background is in gold, just to also elevate it. Then when you flip it around, you'd find that there is a illustration of
the High borg city. I just took the branch we have at the back
of our chocolate, and I also colored it the
same colors as the gift box. You'd have a little paragraph talking about the
city of High Borg, also used from the website. On the right side, as a stamp, I use the V from the logo icon, and the Swiss patch
emblem at the top. Then at the bottom, I left it empty space because if someone
is buying it as a gift, they could write a
message down below. All of these elements
when they come together, they just go beyond
the chocolate pack, and it becomes more of a gift
bull brand and people would go to Villar to buy someone a nice, expensive looking gift. That was the goal in the end. Then this is the elegant
mug that we talked about. I just got this picture
off of Unsplash. They have great high-quality
free images there. I just had to dig around
for a nice looking mug. This would be essentially
a branded mug that would also come as a gift because chocolate
reminds me of coffee or hot chocolate
or something that would pair well when eating it. I just took out this picture, and I just engraved the
logo at the front here. It just shows that this
can be an elegant mug that comes with the gift box, and the gift bag, and all that. Then moving on to photography, we said that we'd include
photography of Switzerland. This is also another
picture off of Unsplash, and I just took the logo
and integrated it into the background by masking some of the letters
within the trees. Then this is another one with a skyline, and the mountains, and the brick houses, just something that would
tie in with the design. Then this is a close-up
of chocolate being made because that was also one
of our photography styles. We want to include
different photography of chocolate being made and the process because that's also something unique to this brand. Then again, another
image of someone holding the cocoa beans before they're being
made into chocolates. This is something also
that ties in with the authenticity of the brand. This is just another
visualization of the exterior of the store. Now there's 1 million ideas
that we can imagine what the store would look
like at the front. But this is just a
quick visualization. I chose it because I like the Swiss patch in
the middle here. I wanted that to tie
into our design. I just took this image
from Unsplash as well, and I just Photoshoped
the sign on the front, and the poster as well, and I just put our designs
and our logo there just to add to the visualization of the brand of what it would look like if it was
outside the store. I would imagine it would be in an old but restored building that has a lot of
meaning and value. You can see that all of that ties into the design somehow. Then I also wanted
just to include an image off of
Unsplash as well, and it is the back
of an apron of a chocolatier making chocolate and what that would look like. I just wanted to put
the logo at the back, and also the Swiss emblem patch at the top in
the back as well. Then you can see all comes
together in social media. On social media, you have an
opportunity to really extend the brand's personality and showcase it in different ways. This is why we applied
them on mockups because then the
brand will actually activate that and include it on social media by including photography of different styles, messaging, behind
the scenes process, chocolate making, mockups
of the actual chocolate, someone eating a chocolate, someone gifting someone
else a chocolate, different ideas that
would make people run and be a part of this
brand and buy the chocolate, and not just the design. The design is a very
important factor, but it's just how you
take it beyond that and really make it a part
of someone's life. This is just a glimpse
of what you can do. There are tons of other
things you can do to really extend a brand's
activation beyond pack. But I just wanted to show
you a little glimpse of how we can take
something like chocolate, and derive certain
ideas out of it, and then apply them, and how that would look like. Now I've prepared a brand video beforehand that I want you
to watch because I want you to see how everything
comes together with music and text and mockups and just all put it together
in one format. This is typically
what I would show clients as well
if I'm presenting this at the very
beginning just to get that initial impact. I hope you like it. I'll
see you in the next lesson.
14. Your Turn: Guys, you've made it until
the end of the line. I hope you found this
interesting and helpful and you ended up loving package and
design as much as I do. Now it's your turn. It's time for your
class project. I want you to pick an
existing tea product of your choice and
redesign its packaging. It can be a tin bulks
for loose tea or a regular box for tea bags made out of paper or cardboard. There is no limit here. You can choose whatever
form you want to work with. Make sure you analyze your
current packaging sign and point out some
details that could be revisited and know why. Then make quick sweep
over their competitors. This can be found from
a basic Google search, or check with other
brands are placed next to it on the shelf
in the supermarket. Then build a moodboard. Sketch your ideas out and
digitize your design. For initial inspiration, you can head over to The
Dieline where you will find award winning
packaging designs from every category and you
can be inspired by those. Or you can also head to
Packaging of the World, where there are tons
of real-world projects and concepts that you
can scheme through. When mocking up, you can
find amazing mockups on Envato Elements if you pay a subscription or
in Creative Market, which I highly recommend
because they have so many options with good
angles and lighting. Mr. Mockup also has great mockups and the
web site also features a freebie section
which has tons of free mockups that are
actually amazing, and so does Graphic River, they have beautiful mock-ups
for super reasonable prices. Alternatively, you can find other free mockups on Unblast, Mockup World, Graphic Burger, Pixeden even has a section
for a free mockup as well. Or you can head to
Google and just write, free box mockups, for example, and go to Google images, click on the links and it will redirect you to the
websites and you can always modify the mockups
later back in Photoshop. When you're done, I
highly encourage you to publish your project in
the project gallery so everyone can see your work
and I can give you feedback on it if you'd like and we can just share our
thoughts together. You can publish a sketch or a D-pad from your
Illustrator file, or a mockup or all three. It's up to you and whatever
makes you comfortable. This is a learning environments, so no pressure and
give it a try. Good luck and have fun with it.
15. Conclusion: Congratulations, you've
made it to the finish line. I know that was a lot to
digest so let me wrap this up for you real
quick in 10 steps. Step 1 is to get to
know your brand. If it's an existing
product to the market, read about it, go online, check out the products
in the market, hold it in your hands and
familiarize yourself with it. The same goes for a new product. If you creating
packaging from scratch, then ask the client
questions that will make you understand
the brand better. Step 2 is to analyze
your product visually. Again to break down the pack and evaluate the layout, topography, product shots if any, and examine what
you want to keep and what you think
you can build on. Step 3 is to make a quick
sweep over the competitors. Even if you're packaging
is not for a client, I would still recommend you do this step to get
acquainted with what other brands are doing so that your design decisions
in the end make sense, and align with what's
in the market, but also stand out
from the competition. Then when you have a good idea of what you're planning to do, write up your action plan. This is just a guide for
you to move forward and set an action what
you want to do exactly for the new pack. When you know exactly
your action plan, you'll know what to look
for in the moodboard phase, are you looking for
bold, chunky topography, references to illustrate, unique Cloud compositions, spend as much time
as you can gathering all the material you need and narrow down into a moodboard. Now you're ready
to start creating. Roll up your sleeves, grab a paper and a pencil
and start experimenting as many ideas as you can
with thumbnail sketches. Keep it a quick and time
effective extra seconds. When you've marked which
thumbnail sketch you like, start refining one or two of those sketches into a bigger, more detailed sketch so you
could see those details and I suggest add some colors and
finalize your composition. Step 8 is to transfer
your sketch onto Adobe Illustrator and start
digitizing your design, and bring it to life. Tell the story of
the brand and build a consistent,
impactful composition. Don't forget to continue the story on the
back of the pack. Utilize the same elements
you use on the front, and apply them differently
on the pack so it stays cohesive with the front but also offer something new
for people to see. Then step 10 is to level up
your design with mockups. You saw how mockups
make a world of a difference in presenting
the final design, so take your time
picking mockups with great shadows and
lighting and don't be afraid to add textures and tactile elements to the
pack if it's relevant. As a bonus step, explore how
you can go beyond the pack. This goes back to understanding the brand and knowing
that's personality. From that, you can derive
certain ideas to show higher design can travel and other applications
and mark those up. This can be a
complimentary tote bag, a billboard, outdoor
signage, and so on. Always keep in mind
the three principles, impact, function and emotion. That's it, the black and I can't wait
to see what you create. I'll be attaching
this conclusion and other resources
that can help you down below for your reference, and feel free to
ask me anything. I'll be here to answer
your questions, and give personalized
feedback if you want.
16. Thank You: Thank you for joining
in on the class, let me know if you've liked it and I'd love it if you left a review if you found
it helpful in any way, I would highly encourage
you to share your work with me and even tag me on Instagram, so I can see it and
re-share your work, if you haven't seen
my class on how to create a unique and
memorable word mark, help on to that one and make
sure you follow my accounts you can be up to date with
any new classes I publish. Have a great day and I'll
see you on the next one. [MUSIC]
Khadija El Sharawy, Graphic Designer & Storyteller
