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School was a bit tedious at first, but once I got settled in and got the initial projects out of the way, class assignments became more engaging. The following was the second project for my Drawing and Illustration class, with the objectives of redesigning a bottle and creating a visually interesting final image. We were instructed by our professor not to be overly concerned with making a bottle that was practical, but to be primarily concerned with creating a final image that was aesthetically appealing. I decided to redesign a bottle of Archer Farms Italian Soda because I felt that the current design was simple enough that I could rework it in many different ways.

As inspiration for the bottle redesign, I began looking at vintage food posters. I enjoyed the organic, curvilinear forms and the vintage bottle shapes. In class, my professor suggested that students begin by creating silhouettes of bottles and labels using colored paper. I tried this method, but it felt a bit too concrete at that point, so I went back to the drawing board and sketched various bottle and label concepts. While considering the labels, one thing that bothered me about the current design was an inconsistency between the product name and some of the other text. A label at the top read “Bibita Naturale D’Italia,” while the brand on the lower label read “Archer Farms”—not so Italian. I decided that to resolve this conflict I would abstract the Archer Farms name into an “AF,” while retaining the trademark rooster so that the brand would still be recognizable to customers.

I continued on to the paper silhouettes, which helped me work out labeling for my five best concepts. After modifying the forms and receiving critique from classmates, I narrowed them down to the top two in the image on the right. I began considering which of the two would be best. I chose the concept on the left because it was a more modern, original design and because the one on the right had a shape that carried connotations of alcoholic beverages.

I then began to work on modeling the new bottle. We were allowed to use any medium for this, and I chose to render it in Google SketchUp. Once I had constructed the bottle in SketchUp, I created the label in Adobe Illustrator and applied it to the bottle as a texture. At first I had some difficulty implementing the abstracted Archer Farms logo within the teardrop-shaped label. I decided to try repeating the teardrop shape, and this resulted in a readable logo that fit well with the rest of the design. I then exported the bottle to Photoshop as a Google Earth file. I found that the best way to create a sense of depth with a 3D object in Photoshop is to layer the object using different blending modes and fills. The resulting rough can be seen at the left.

The class critiqued each other’s works again and I made changes accordingly. I knew that I wanted to include multiple flavors of the Italian Soda in the final image, so I created new labels. In the process, I realized that the complementary color scheme I had been using did not translate well to other flavors. This motivated me to change to a monochromatic color scheme, which resulted in a clearer sense of what the flavors actually were. However, I was still struggling with how to make it an interesting image. Then, it dawned on me—around this time I had seen a few designs that used repetition, which I found very striking. They made me want to use repetition in my own work, and the multiple labels I had created presented the perfect opportunity. I fired up Illustrator and Photoshop once more and combined a ground of repeating labels with the new bottle design, creating an image that was both eye-catching and understandable. Overall, I would say that this project taught me to be willing to give up what I initially thought was best and try something different. I also learned to be open to spontaneity and to react to the design, rather than forcing it to conform to preconceptions of how it should be—in short, to let the design change itself.

The Archer Farms name & Rooster Design are registered trademarks of Target Brands, Inc.