Pirate dinner IV - Puppy Treats Design

Today, it was Pirate Dinner.  Some very talented friends of mine and I hold a monthly design challenge, that means getting together, eating some good home made food and laughing a lot. Each month's host proposes a theme for the challenge and gives us especial directions if needed, we make a design and bring it with us.  There is no pressure, it's just to have fun designing.

January's challenge was Puppy Treats.

This was my design.

I thought I will tell you a bit about my creative process. The name that was picked for me was "Lick, sniff and bite" which is a very dirty sounding name. So, I wanted to make into a yuppy, kinda classy design to add some drama. I was thinking that it would be a good contrast. I started by doing some research and drew some title options in my sketchbook:

I liked how the last one on the right looked, so I went on the computer and worked on the idea, tried different typefaces and color combinations. I usually choose few font options with Font Book, but I am open to try other things along the way. 

I start designing on black and white first, then I keep duplicating the logo and make slight changes to it until I am happy with the result, same with color schemes, diecuts and all. After a few hours I decide to stop and make a decision. I choose a design and then apply it to the different flavors. I like to see how the idea will be implemented in series. That helps me decide how big the type should be (for instance I had to reduce the type on the flavor because longer titles needed smaller type and I wanted to keep it consistent). Or what color schemes I am using, I had to make changes to my bacon color scheme in favor of the beef flavor. 

This is what my file looked like when I finished.

For a professional job I would probably had more comps and more sketches but this is just for fun. And I had lots of fun in fact this is what I devoted pretty much the whole Saturday afternoon to.

Looking forward to the next challenge of the Pirate Day/dinner/awesomeness!

www.helenaecija.com | Ecija on DeviantArt

Design club - February 2011

Two of my friends and I have started a somewhat design club. They are both graphic designers. Every month we will propose an assigment, get together, make dinner and present our designs. Our first assigment was making a commemoration badge for the Chicago Blizzard.

My friends presented very awesome designs. We all did them kinda last minute but this club is meant to have fun, so everything goes. I had so much fun painting mine. I think if I had more time I would've changed some of my composition decisions. But I am happy for what turned out due to the joy painting it gave me.

My idea was to make a snowflake shaped badge. I wanted to make it art deco style and it developed into a inverted stained glass type thing. 

I had to add an outline because I couldn't keep my eye focus inside the illustration. It made it better but something is missing... anyway, super fun to paint thought!

•   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •  •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •

www.helenaecija.com Ecija on DeviantArt