Today Tom briefly outlined the history of package design starting from Egyptian amphorae and ending on Wonder bread. He mentioned how church interiors blow people’s minds, making a connection with the aesthetic of luxury—gold plated scepters and high vaulted ceilings—and authority. When making your designs, show that you are the authority on it. Make it ornate, commanding and detailed. Oh, are you friendly and accessible? Keep it graphically simple. (See Wonder Bread Logo)

We made thumbnails in class to present for a Tom-critiquing. He emphasized if you haven’t thumbnailed, you’re doing it wrong. Yes, I am one of those students who started on the pen tooling of what I thought would be a good label design and since my thumbnailing session I can confidently slide that file into the trash icon on my desktop.

During critique, Tom had a first declaration of paper pads for sketches that will be put up for critique. He loathes the feathered edge that comes with ripping something out of a spiral bound note book. And something that he detests even more is when students just bring up their notebook. It falls down, it falls down and scatters its inner loose papers, and it falls down and causes a minor distraction and lag during the critique.

When Tom came to my project, I was nervous. I have gone confidently to critiques before only to have all my sketches to be denounced as useless and there’s no talking your way out of useless sketches (though God knows I try).

It’s third quarter now and still the teachers make me a little nervous. Tom asked about “No.17” and if it was my idea (he totally dug it) and I was relieved to hear him say nice things about it that I said yes to his question without realizing I was taking credit for the brilliant and sentimental idea of a friend. Saying yes was a lot less syllables than saying that a friend and student in the culinary arts department makes sauces and I wanted to take the easy way out and make a label for an existing sauce instead of inventing a company and a sauce for this class project.

This class project is to make a sauce label that contains all the things that a good label should include, from the right tone, the nutrition facts and the brand’s logo and what not.

Tom said that I could go in any of these directions. The next step: What does my client think?

No.17 Sauce

Project: Make a sauce label fitting an existing bottle (we are not industrial designers and really don’t have the resources to come up with a bottle prototype as well)

Step 1) Concept: A garlic habanero sauce for fun and energetic people

Step 2) Thumbnail

Step 3) Go to Illustrator