Hi classmates!

Very excited to start my project for this class, as I learned so much from Mary Kate's first two classes and am really thrilled to apply my learnings.

For this project, I decided to do a label for my mother-in-law's famous holiday tamales. I'm an American married to a Panamanian and living in Panama City, and I'm lucky enough to have the most delightful extended family, helmed by the most talented and generous matriarch. Each year she has a big event called "Tamalada" in which all of her lady friends (and some men, from time to time) get together and make an ungodly amount of tamales, which they then distribute amongst family and friends for the holidays. It's such a lovely tradition and I wanted to infuse all of the love, tradition and spirit that goes into the event in my project.

To start, here's a photo from Tamalada 2013 (as you can see it's quite an undertaking - aprons and gloves are a must):

World-Famous Holiday Panamanian Tamales - image 1 - student project

Here's my mood board:

World-Famous Holiday Panamanian Tamales - image 2 - student project

Here's my project/"client" brief:

World-Famous Holiday Panamanian Tamales - image 3 - student project

And some of my preliminary sketches:

World-Famous Holiday Panamanian Tamales - image 4 - student project

World-Famous Holiday Panamanian Tamales - image 5 - student project

Ok, started on the thumbnail / sketch phase and I'm looking at two main layouts, version A:

World-Famous Holiday Panamanian Tamales - image 6 - student project

And version B:

World-Famous Holiday Panamanian Tamales - image 7 - student project

I'm pretty sold on version B - but I think I'm going to simplify the border and fix the "Holiday Tamales" text so it's the main read. Feels like there's no real focal point right now.

World-Famous Holiday Panamanian Tamales - image 8 - student project

Update: Ok, I think the left is a better layout. This is still a rough sketch, but I think this is going to be the final version. Going to continue to noodle this and hopefully take it to final sketch and inking in the next couple of days! Any feedback welcome!

Update, 12/14: Here's the final sketch! I'm currently working on digitizing and color. Been having trouble so I had to take a couple days away from it. But I'm back to it and hoping to finish the project soon.

World-Famous Holiday Panamanian Tamales - image 9 - student project

Update, 12/14: Here it is, finally! Digitized and colored. I struggled with the colors for days, but I think I'm finally happy with this palette. Might play around with a few more colorways, and also add more texture, but this is a good stopping point for now.

World-Famous Holiday Panamanian Tamales - image 10 - student project

Update 1/12 - Was traveling for the holidays but am finally back home and able to share these printed, finished versions of my tamale cards! I was really happy with the way these turned out, and my mother-in-law was so touched. And the tamales, themselves, are out of this world! Thanks to Mary Kate and everyone for all the feedback. I had an absolute blast taking this class!

World-Famous Holiday Panamanian Tamales - image 11 - student project

World-Famous Holiday Panamanian Tamales - image 12 - student project

Danielle Fabrega

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