Responsive- Design Process 2: Riverfront Plantation Foods

For the responsive module, I decided to take part in a few more live briefs through the 99 Designs website. I found this brief in the Labels and Packaging section which I felt would be different for me to do as I haven't attempted to make a label or packaging yet. The brief is to produce bottle labels and a possible logo for a start up company called Riverfront Plantations Food. They are a food and drink sector company who have a range of 5 different flavoured sauces and jellies. The labels have to be 2.75 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall.

Riverfront Plantation Foods Brief

The brief asks for a possible logo design alongside some bottle label designs. The brief is quite open in regards to visual aesthetics but they do ask for it to include the image of a plantation house and the inclusion of the brand name and flavour names of the sauces. As a suggestion, they are looking for something which is clean, crisp and perhaps traditional in keeping with the history and heritage of the brand.

PDF Screenshot

We were provided with a PDF of information such as the brand history story and with visuals of the current bottle label designs and particular styles that they currently like. They seem to be very simple and have a mainly whet background sticking to one or two colours. 

To start with, I decided to focus on the aspect of the overall design which they were every much set on, which was the inclusion of a plantation house. 

Plantation House Illustration

I knew it would have to be a very detailed illustration in order for it to look genuine so I put a lot of time into getting the illustration right as this would be the main focal point of the design. I was very happy with how the actual drawings itself came out as it is very clean, clear and looks exactly like what it is suppose to be.

Development of Logo

The next thing I started developing was a potential logo for the brand. They wanted something that was quite classy and traditional which, to me, particularly with the time frame of which these houses existed, suggested to me a scripted font. I found one for Public Domain use called 'AeroliteCPone' which is a script font which has more spacing between the letterforms so it is readable. I felt this would give the brand a sense of grandeur and heritage. I tried to put the design inside a border, both in regards to a rectangular and a circular format, but I felt that this wasn't giving the right feel to the overall design. 

Development of Logo

I added grey to the black and white design as I felt that it was a very classy way of adding definition to the design. This worked for the actual plantation house but not for the font so I changed that back to black. I felt that a border I could try would be for a frame used for photographs so that it would give it elevation as well as being traditional. 

Moving onto Logo

As I was finding it difficult to expand the logo any further, I went onto producing a potential label using the existing logo design. I included the different flavours of the sauces onto the bottles and arranged the information from top to bottom to show a hierarchy. I wanted to try and incorporate dome colour into the design so I added a single colour to the label alongside the black and white, having the plantation house also in this colour so as to give each bottle its own identity. Having black text looked like an afterthought on the label so I changed the text to white which gave more of a sophisticated aesthetic. 

Combination of Logo and Label

I went onto develop this by combining the contemporary design of the coloured labels with the traditional aesthetic of the logo to make a combination image. This makes much more impact and stays true to both the need for it to be traditional and contemporary. I included information from the PDF such as the year of the company starting and some description of the product itself so as to get people to buy the product. I changed the text back to black as it seemed more readable.

Development of Logo

I changed the colours of the labels so that they were more in keeping of the clients wants by having red, browns and greens as the main colour scheme yet allowing the colours to be the main thing that differentiates between each flavour. I changed the colour of the font as well by applying a white and 1 colour aesthetic throughout. 

Development of Labels

From this, I changed the black outlines from the plantation house, inverting the colours from being solid inside to white and being outlined in the background colour. I made the yellow colour darker so that it is easier to read the text and comes across as more homely. I changed the font of the small descriptions in the middle as they were quite difficult to read in the script font. I selected the font 'Adobe Garamond Pro' so it is readable and clear whilst in keeping with the old fashioned aesthetic. 

Further Development

Looking at the colours after changing the yellow, I needed to make the green darker so that it was more in keeping with the rest of the shades. I made the outlines of the labels thicker, up to 3pt, so that they had a much more defined outline. I changed the body copy so that it reads more fluidly as well to  2 lines. 

To further this, I changed the typeface for the product name to Adobe Garamond Pro as well which adds some differentiation as well as make more of a definition to the brand name. I added lines on the top and the bottom of the product name to give it more emphasis so it was clearer to the audience. 

Final Label Design

What I like about the labels is that style are all consistent throughout and work together as a set, with a very traditional aesthetic with a contemporary twist.  I thought that this would allow for a more contemporary image which that they would be able to alternate between flavours. 

To try and make them more professional, I felt that I would attempt to superimpose the labels onto the style of bottle that the client is wanting. 

Photomanipulation of Bottle

I wasn't able to find a PSD file which would cater for a salad dressing bottle so I had to find a large image and be able to manipulate this. I didn't feel as though this highlighted the labels in the best light however this visually and clearly showed what I would do with the labels themselves.

Final Bottle Labels

Following that, I put them onto a Design Board showing the inidivdual labels as well as them being contextualised onto the bottle so that it was clear what the design is intended to be used for . 

Design Board for Riverfront Plantation Foods 

The bottles as a set look great together as they look like they are part of the same series. They have the same visual identity and I feel like they would get people to buy them if they were on a supermarket shelf. I don't feel as though my visual representation of the bottles in context however were great but I think that was down to the quality of the image and the fact that they were imposed onto a photograph. If I was to improve this, I would perhaps produce a illustrator mock up of a bottle so that it was more in keeping with the actual design and would benefit the visual impact of the bottle label.

Submission:

As part of the submission, I gave a short description of the work that I had produced alongside a declaration that the design is mine alone.

Submitted Entry

Unfortunately I didn't get any feedback back but I did enjoy the brief in regards to doing something I haven't done before which is make a label for a bottle. I actually enjoyed producing the logo and the label and I felt that I had made something which would be different from any other designers. To improve this next time, I will produce an illustrated mock up so that it is in keeping with the overall aesthetic of the design and shows it off in a better light.