Design Takes - Oct. 2024
Over the past few years, I’ve been diving into all kinds of design projects, both digital and analog, with various range of styles. What kept my attention the longest though is design observation and its impact in our daily lives.
So, I’ve decided to bring this process to a broader audience with monthly "Design Takes" sessions.
I’ve started these sessions on LinkedIn, as I noticed more and more professionals in the field are daily active on that platform and so I said, maybe is best to bring these observations there. The space though is limited and the content you share is restricted so I‘ve decided to provide a more in depth analysis here while keeping things a bit more concise over there.
These will focus on observing and analysing the designs I encounter in the world around me, (including but not only) typography choices, banners and posters, packaging and pretty much anything I can see anywhere I go, examining their usability and how they influence our daily experiences.
First Up - Heinz Biscotti
Could this be looking more “yummy”?
This design is not particularly wrong, but it could benefit from a refreshed layout, especially on those empty sides of the pack. Most importantly, the characters could have a stronger presence tied to each specific flavour.
Heinz Baby biscuits make a vast section of the company and they do present them differently in other countries, depending on the local culture and demand, these biscotti here, are in the UK and the range is limited to about 4-5 flavours with little variations between them.
Here’s how I would see it.
When it comes to children's products, bright colors and playful illustrations naturally go together. To stand out among similar items on the shelf, clear and engaging packaging is essential for capturing attention.
Here, I have kept the existing design parameters, but with a fuller composition, brighter colours, and more vivid imagery.
This rough sketch serves only for analysis purposes to visualise an alternative approach, though a more refined execution would be needed.
more obvious fruits
new happy character
fuller background
proportionate elements
removed unrelated elements
Next One Up - Kids Book Cover
This is a great book for kids, unique layout, opening and content (which is why I bought it) not to mention the illustrations :)
Colour are great, nice contrast between text and the blue background. The text style is “speaking” to the right audience, so from a design perspective, everything is great except one thing on this cover... Can you spot which one is it?One hint - its typography related.
The issue is called “kerning”- in font making process you need to have even spacing between letters but to some letters, you need to apply specific spacing (kerning) values for optical effect. S P & C E are close to one another, but P & A are very far form each other, which looks unbalanced for such a short title.
The spacing between letters are not mathematically calculated but rather adjusted visually considering the curvatures and straight lines which may look very different in various contexts. This approach ensures balanced typography, especially when considering different Latin languages beside English.
Of course, given the audience, the design principles are a bit more “permissive” in general but unless is obviously intentional, breaking design rules are delicate and should always have a solid functional or aesthetic reason.
If you made it this far in this article, I very much thank you and congratulations, you’ve learned something, even if maybe it was just out of curiosity. :)
While the focus is more on analysis than correction, these monthly sessions are all about exploring what’s out there, brainstorming, understand and why not, make it better.
If there’s something you’d like me to review for these sessions, feel free to send me an email!
I’d be happy to take a look and include it in an upcoming article.