Jon Contino

Lettering for Package Design: From Sketch to Label

Hi Loretta! You have a strong mood board, which is a great start. I especially like the watercolour feeling of the illustrations on your board; I think that can be an effective choice for food labeling. Based on your sketch, I have a few suggestions so far. In drawing your turnip (radish? rutabaga?), you may get more mileage from stylizing the outline a bit. If you are planning to do more of a wash of colours, you could bring more detail in that way and not distract from the hand drawn type.For your main type on the label (spiced celeriac), maybe try experimenting with a flat brush and ink? That may give you some heft to the letter forms and help it stand out against more illustrative elements on your label. I personally find it easier to make looser lines with wet media as opposed to charcoal or pencil. For your secondary copy (ingredients, weight), I might try running that text up and around the bottom of your veg illustration, kind of in a half circle? If you are colouring all the way to the edges, it might look neat to knock out that type instead of choosing a colour. One last thing hopefully useful note that has stuck with me since school--one of my drawing professors was adamant about this--make sure when you are doing your final sketch to scan that you are drawing your letter forms. When you draw the letters instead of just writing them, you are completely focused on the shape which gives you a much better balance to the word. I know your sketch is just a first sketch so please don't take that as a criticism; it is just something that has helped me a ton over the years when I am hand doing type! I am looking forward to seeing where you go with this!

Hello, it looks like you have a good idea of the style you want your label to be in, and you've got interesting images on your mood board! I love the 'Love Winter' type, and the idea for the labels to have that hand-written feel as if they had been written by the maker; makes it more personal and home-made/authentic. Would you be using images of the fruits in the jams? Could explore using illustration, or typography over/included in the images. Looks like you have a good point to develop further from, will be interested to see what you make!

Thank you very much! I'm probably going to either have an outline of the fruits/vegetables (as I have just posted). Also considering some illustration.Thanks so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it.

My label will be for a line of pickles and preserves. I'm aiming to use a subdued colour pallette with strong typographical elements. Warm colours and loose lettering should give the product a warm feel. MOOD BOARD<img class="zoomable rounded-image-wrapper" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/skillshare/uploads/project/5907fc678f7b816f065e6989a303ba78/114da38d" alt="Plump Pickles &amp; Preserves - image 1 - student project" srcset="http://s3.amazonaws.com/skillshare/uploads/project/5907fc678f7b816f065e6989a303ba78/114da38d 600w, http://s3.amazonaws.com/skillshare/uploads/project/5907fc678f7b816f065e6989a303ba78/114da38d 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" loading="lazy"> INITIAL SKETCHES<img class="zoomable rounded-image-wrapper" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/skillshare/uploads/project/5907fc678f7b816f065e6989a303ba78/a245f4ce" alt="Plump Pickles &amp; Preserves - image 2 - student project" srcset="http://s3.amazonaws.com/skillshare/uploads/project/5907fc678f7b816f065e6989a303ba78/a245f4ce 600w, http://s3.amazonaws.com/skillshare/uploads/project/5907fc678f7b816f065e6989a303ba78/a245f4ce 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" loading="lazy">

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