Tastes like winter

Not exactly on thursday, this post, pardon me for the delay.

On to the packages!
The assignment was to design a box for pastilles by the name Routa. Routa is a finnish word for frost, the kind that freezes the ground. All we had to work with was the name, some compulsory information that the package must hold, the manufacturer should be Fazer (and thus their logo should be included) and that the box itself should be the size of a Fazer Salmiakki -box. What kind of pastilles the package would hold - that was for us to decide.


(Sorry for the crappy quality of the picture - I took it with my cellphone.)
Here is my take on Routa. I was quite sure that the first impression for most people would be that these pastilles should be cough drops, as many such pastilles in Finland, at least, are given a very breezy image for their throat and voice clearing qualities. I wanted them to be something different - I associated Routa with certain clarity and intensity of the flavour, and most of all, Finland. So I chose very finnish flavours - blueberry, cranberry and cloudberry - and tried to keep the breeze and snowstorms to the minimum, without forgetting the origins of the name.

I also wanted to keep the packaging quite simple, with few colours and few elements. The logo itself was fun to design, and I think I succeeded in keeping it simple, yet including the qualities of the name. With the intense and sort of delicious, bright colouring on the berries I wanted to bring out the intense, sweet and delicious taste of the pastilles.

I got very good feedback on this and feel quite happy with the outcome, myself. :)

Oh, and on a sidenote - we also had to construct the packages ourselves. I bought a box of Fazer Salmiakki -pastilles and tore it apart, measured it, then proceeded to draw it in Illustrator. Then after a couple of tries on the constructing part I added the layout on the construction, then printed it on carton and cut it out and constructed the boxes using a utility knife, ruler, an ordinary blunt knife (the kind of utensil you use for eating, this time for creasing), and two-sided sticky tape. One of the criteria when assessing our packages was that the box should be well-constructed - it should open, close and stand upright without toppling over or leaning to side or anything.

The course was fun and I'm hoping we get to design more packaging at school in the future :D


As an added bonus - a friend of mine is going to Japan as an exchange student for a year, so our class prepared a little booklet for her to remember us while she's there. It included problems and things to do, such as crosswords and sudokus, as well as poems and, naturally, drawings. This was a page I did for the booklet - it actually doesn't look that much like the Iriomote cat, but it's the thought that counts, eh? On the other side was a short description of the species.

Judge the book by the cover - I do

Oh my, I haven't updated in ages. I've been meaning to, several times, in fact, but I've been busy with numerous projects...

As I have already mentioned in my personal blog, me and a student colleague of mine are working on the visuals for a fashion show. It's a show organized by our school's fashion design students, and linked to a bigger event. Very interesting, but challenging and time-consuming as well.

My class is also working on the illustrations and all sorts of amusing problems and assignments for a magazine directed to children. This is, for our part, nearly done.

Also I'm having a course on package design, and have been, for the past few days, designing a series of packages for candy drops which, for the purpose of the assignment, go by the name Routa. I actually just finished the layouts and shall print and construct the packages tomorrow - however, I'm not posting them here just yet, the deadline is on thursday so I'll post them here then ;)

I've been so excited about graphic design lately, and really thought that I'm just where I'm supposed to be! We made a few visits to printing offices and editorial offices last week, and I couldn't have been happier. I was on the verge of mental orgasm when I saw all the cool stuff you can do to your work when printing - oh the metallic shine and reliefs and glitters!

Speaking of mental orgasms, I don't know how I've never found it before, but anyone interested in packaging design - or graphic design in general - should definitely check out The Dieline. I've been crying tears of joy and swimming in pools of inspiration for the past week, spending my free moments geeking over the innovative and cool designs presented there.

And now, for something else than orgasms entirely - my schoolwork.


The assignment was to redesign the cover of S. H. Steinberg's 500 years of printing. Sadly I didn't use as much time on this as I should have, but I sort of like the clean-cut feel of it anyway.


Here we were to choose a book the cover of which we disliked, and redesign it. I hate the cover of the copy I have, so here's my take on Anne Rice's The Interview with the Vampire. I've always hated Claudia with a passion, though.


Aaand here's a close-up of the illustration. Sorry for the ugly watermarks, I'm that paranoid. I would have liked to work on this more, but didn't have the time for it. I actually made this with vectors at first, then realized that I can't get the look I want with them (d'uh) and so I went and digitally painted over it.

That's all I can show for now, I'm afraid. I'll come back on thursday with some candy boxes!

...well alright, have this work-in-progress-chihuahua-on-acid.

Artpadster

Artpad is a source of some frustration as a tool, but sort of fun, nevertheless.


Watch me do it.

I do practically nothing these days without some sort of rough sketch as a base. And I love painted dogs (aka. african wild dogs) with their great big ears.

Still keeping busy.

Let this be my statement

Doubleposting with my personal blog, but anyway.


I've been so busy trying to fit school and other things into my schedule and every now and then find some time to relax a bit, that I haven't had time to blog too much, though I have loads of things to show you. Hang in there!

Colorama

Holy crap am I into colors right now. Especially my Copic markers - I haven't used them in ages and found them again while doodling the picture for January 8th. And by the way, I haven't missed a day yet with the sketches!


Here be sketches from January 4th to January 7th.


January 8th. I decided I wanted to draw a giraffe and a friend of mine told me that it should be green. Who am I to argue? I won't take responsibility of any damaged retinae, though.


9th. Bright colours.


And this would be a bonus I drew today at about... 3:30 a.m.?

This spring is going to be so busy with school and all the other things I have going on right now. I should be doing schoolwork so I don't have to panic with them later, instead I'm still up and about at 4 a.m. drawing green giraffes - what's the matter with me? :D

It's just that I'm starting to get my flow back. And it's only been a little over a week that I've drawn daily - it's really working, just drawing and drawing without too much pause. I'm feeling optimistic and ambitious about drawing in a way I haven't for quite some time!

Oh nine!

Happy new year everyone!
One of my resolutions for the year 2009 was to start drawing a picture every day. Doesn't sound like much at all, but I drew so little last year that it should be illegal.

So here be the sketches for the first three days of 2009, + a pudgy little thing with a high opinion of himself.


Oh, and I made another blog as well. Shy out loud would be where I post my thought's and everyday things, so I can keep this one more focused on my sketches :)

One more thing, I got a little something from Neetta:


Thank you so much!

Well, who died and left YOU god, Mr. Claus?!

Oh wow it's Christmas soon! :D I've had so much on my mind lately that I haven't really fully realized it until quite recently. Luckily I have all my Christmas shopping done for this year, and so, with a purse that is remarkably lighter than it was until last week but a mind that's quite content, I ready myself for holidays. Today was the last day of school - I actually had an appointment with the doctor this morning, and by the time I arrived at school, our teacher was just wishing us all a very merry Christmas!

Still a lot to do before I can really kick back though - we ought to clean the kitchen cupboards and our fridge, though otherwise the apartment has been cleaned and we can leave it for Christmas so that it's nice to come back to... We also have a chunk of gingerbread cookie dough still unbaked in the fridge :)

Plus, the day after tomorrow my roommate celebrates her engagement at her fiancé's folks, and so me and my other roomie (we'll be maids of honour in the wedding!) head for Kauhajoki at 7:45 in the morning... and come back the same day. It takes roughly three hours by train from Tikkurila to Seinäjoki, and an hour by car to Kauhajoki from there. My folks will be picking me up from Koivukylä so I don't have to take the bus to Vihti after that, but still, we won't be at Vihti before midnight. And at the start of the week I'll have a couple of days of work and I'll have to do some Christmas cleaning and possibly baking at my parents'..! But it's all worth it, I'm so happy it's holidays at last.

The header is, by the way, from the great song Surabaya-Santa from Jason Robert Brown's musical Songs for a New World.

Now for some visuals ;)


Schoolwork - a typography poster presenting three typefaces. We had a number of quotes to pick from, I liked that one.


Magazine layout for a spread consisting of Bradbury Thompson's poem and a short text about him.


A tiny painting of two foxcubs I did sometime during the summer, I only found it when visiting my folks a couple of weeks back.

Merry, snowy and in all ways lovely Christmas to you all! ♥