Third Year: Initial Label Design Development

I have now started to develop the designs for the labels that will go the 4 candle vessels. The brief states that the label design that would go on vessels that hold the candles can take any shape and size we feel is best- as mentioned in previous blog posts, the size that I have decided to take for the label is 6cm height x 15cm width. The long width label means that it can be wrapped around the vessel as this allows room for more imagery and patterns on the sides as well as being more interesting than a typical square label on the front.

My idea for the designs was to focus on the textures, surfaces and patterns found within the bodies and features of the 4 insects, see blog post 'Insect Texture Research'. I started with creating illustrations and image traces of each of the insects, some of these were done by hand and some used photographs of the insects as reference and traces, the illustrations focus on the forms of the insects, the patterns in their wings and bodies and facial features/antenna's.

Dragonfly

Asian Lady Beetle

Mayfly

Monarch Butterfly

Since these illustrations are quite detailed and pattern based, they will be used in large scale, certain parts of them will be selected and they will also be used as background imagery.

I decided to create some more simple versions/icons of these illustrations/each insect that can be used on the label and packaging designs alongside the more detailed illustrations. These icons are more minimal which makes them more recognisable, they also create a nice contrast between the detailed illustrations.

Insect icons

Below show the first refined developments of the label designs for each candle, all of them follow the same grid system and rules throughout, as they are part of the same collection this is important.I decided to go with the colour palette that I created based on each insect and their environments with some slight tweaks to some hues and shades.

The label design uses block colour combined with eye-catching illustrations of the insects in different scales and compositions in order to create interesting contrasts and an overall busy, vibrant, summery aesthetic. The bold colours represent each insect as well as aiming to engage the consumer.

The typeface used is 'Big John Pro', a sans serif typeface is used as it contemporary and engaging as well as matching the current Oliver Bonas branding, which also uses Sans Serif for the logo and on most of their gift products. I felt that it was important for the designs to match the Oliver Bonas aesthetic, this also relates to the insect illustrations patterns used on the label designs; Oliver Bonas products and clothing are often consist of detailed to minimal patterns.

Furthermore, I decided to call the candle collection 'The Flutter Range'. This relates to the fact that all of the insects that the candles represent can fly, the word 'flutter' has a soft and gentle feel to it which I felt was appropriate for spring when everything is just starting to slowly bloom.

Rejected range name ideas: