rodchenko - a background

Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was born on 5th December 1891, in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was an artist, graphic designer, photographer and sculptor. He was one of the founders of Constructivism art and was also part of the Productivist art group.

His photography work was unique in itself, as he usually shot his works in very high or low angles, his reasoning fro this was that “one has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again.”



In 1921 Rodchenko produced the first monochrome pictures of red, blue and yellow. He claimed that this was the end of painting.



He became part of the Productivist group in 1921, where started producing graphics designs for movies, posters and books. He also started photomontaging, after being inspired by the German Dadaists, and released his first piece in 1923.




He worked closely with Mayakovsky, his first photomontage illustrated Mayakovsky’s poem “About This”, they also worked together to design the Constructivists journal LEF.



Rodchenko’s work has influenced a number of images to this day. Most notably the Dutch punk band ‘The Ex’ whose vinyl covers for their album ‘Hidegen Fujnak A Szelek/She Said’ imitating Rodchenko’s portrait of Lilya Brik. Similarly Franz Ferdinand’s album ‘You Could Have It So Much Better’ imitates the same image.
Another album cover from Franz Ferdinand resembles one of Rodchenko’s images. The cover for the single ‘Take Me Out’ is influenced by Rodchenko’s poster ‘One-Sixth Part of the World’.

new project: design time capsule

I will be using this blog to document my research for this project. For this project we have to design a box that is relevant to a design movement. I will also be keeping a sketch book to further add to my research and product development.

need more ram

I have finished every side of my cereal box, however when I tried to create the 3D version on my fantastic laptop a message popped up saying I needed more ram, so therefore I will have to finish the design on the college macs.

all the sides

here be the sides:

about my cereal

I have decided to create a children’s cereal, for 4-12 year olds, as I feel that designing for this demographic will be more fun and flexible. The images I will use will all be cartoons, and I will be applying a comical theme to it, which is not uncommon for children’s cereal. I will be trying to appeal to both genders, although the end product might be more appealing to boys as I will be using strong contrasting colours and a male mascot.

All the images used will be drawn in Adobe Illustrator, and I will be using bold colours to add to the cartoony effect.

The theme of the cereal will be outer space. The cereal will be corn clusters, representing comets. They will be cinnamon flavour, as that is a very popular choice amongst children. The images on the box will be of the mascot, an astronaut, who is standing outside of his space ship. There will be a maze on the reverse of the product where the user has to find their way out; the walls will be formed of small comets.

I am yet to think of a name for the cereal, but I’m edging towards one that will relate to the theme of the cereal.

packaging design principles

Whilst surfing the Internet I found an interesting account on the principles of packaging design. The article talks about the roles of packaging, the purposes and mentions statistics about packaging design.

http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/Design-Disciplines/Packaging-design/

I have learnt from this article that product packaging serves as much more than just a 'sales canvas' and they can serve as a part of the product, in the form of puzzles on the back of cereal boxes for example.
It also tells me that perhaps advertising that your product has eco-friendly packaging material and is recycable might entice more people to buy your product, as they feel strongly about environmental issues.

There are also a few statistics in there:

• over 70% of purchase decisions are made at point of purchase.
  
• A pack on a supermarket shelf has less than 3 seconds to grab attention.

evolution of cereal boxes - coco pops

Here I will be researching and evaluating versions of Coco Pops packaging.



This earlier box of Coco Pops is quite busy as it features a lot of information. There are really only two main colours used here, brown and yellow. Brown is used because it relates to the colour of coco, and yellow is a good contrasting colour of that and it is also a ‘friendly’ colour.
The Kellogg’s logo stands out well as it is red on yellow, it is also placed directly above the title of the product, which will make it be read.
The image of the cereal with milk pouring into it tells you it should be served with milk, and the notepad placed behind it acts as a checklist of nutritional information, which the monkey has assessed and checked off the properties on the list. This is important for potential consumers as they would want to know of the nutritional values in the food they buy, so this can reassure them that they are buying the right product.
The monkey is the mascot for the product, and has a very cartoony appearance, this would be engaging to the younger audience, as the monkey looks very friendly and fun.



This is the latest Coco Pops box, it has the same characteristics as the previous one, albeit with a few changes. The text is in the same font and size, although the colour has been changed to make it brighter, and more appealing.
They have changed the appearance of the monkey completely. It is now more realistic, but still cartoony, and looks friendlier.
They also have the compulsory GDA chart which tells the audience the nutritional percentages and stats.
One major thing that is different is the big red shape at the top with the price in it. This stands out a lot and lets the audience know the price, which is useful for if some cereal isn’t clearly priced in a shop.