Proj. 04

Ephemera

Plan, Seek & Gather!

As an assignment, classmates and I were instructed to gather different labels and pieces of packaging that were available to us. Shown in the image above is my personal assortment of items I collected: Boxes from rice, pasta, cereal, oatmeal, drink mixtures, medicine, and tissues. I also collected a plastic candy packaging that stood out to me.

I found it interesting how objects and advertising come and go. They're not necessarily supposed to last forever and we get used to seeing them on a daily basis. This generally defines the term, "Ephemera." I didn't know much about the term until it was introduced during class.

Phase 01:
Arrange and Photograph

During this next phase of the assignment, the class was put into small assigned groups that we established at the beginning of the semester. Every student was asked to bring in different product packaging, which was then put together in collaborative collages per group.

My group had quite a few boxes, but they came in handy. One group member brought in a giant size version of Cheerios. I also brought a very large box of Barilla pasta, which we utilized with the Cheerios box to make a main focal point. I really like how we were able to put different words and phrases in our collage, some really stood out but the smaller details in nutritional facts or ingredients gave the collage more detail.

When the class finished collaging, we were instructed to take various pictures of our collages from our phones. It was advised to take them in contrasting positions. To the right displays my group's collage. Under the first image is a picture I took at an angle from the edge of the collage. The last image is the Barilla and Cheerios word collaboration my group created.

Phase 02:
Sketching a Tailor-Made Trio

To continue this assignment, the class was asked to sketch out the images they took of their group collage. Before we sketched anything out completely we printed out some of the pictures we took from Phase 01. We did this in the original sizes of the images and then we scaled them down to 50% and 30% of the original size. Once we had all of the materials together, we started collaging the printed images. Our Professor had us make 3 collages, each with its own type of guidelines to adhere to.

Collage #1

Size
Weight
Interval

Collage #2

Hierarchy
Active Rhythm

Collage #3

Navigation
Structure
Grouping

The collaging process was definitely interesting. Even though we had to represent certain "themes" in each collage, you could still see them represented in the others. I also realized that within my collages I had a tendency to use a few graphics that were in the product labels. I cut them out separately, mostly in Collage #2.

After revising our collages we started to sketch them out. I attempted to do two sketches per collage for more variety, but the last collage ended up having one sketch since I liked the design so much.

I had the most fun sketching Collage #1, but Collage #2 encouraged me to think more about how I wanted the sketch laid out. Initially, I did not like how the upper half of the sketch turned out. I decided to sketch it again after I recieved feedback from my Professor. I ended up leaving out a gum logo and and shifted everything around. The second sketch really interested me and I was really motivated to sketch it.

Phase 03: Digitize

For the third phase of this project, we were asked to digitize our sketches. I initially wanted to stick directly to the sketches I made, but I ended up branching off into newer ideas as I designed.

For Collage #1, I used more graphics than I planned. Something about black and white contrast made me wanted to experiment with it. I think the extra shapes like the black rectangle behind the product packaging seemed to compliment the type well. I kept a similar theme going on by adding in graphics in the right hand corners. They're very jelly-like and I thought they contributed to the overall flow and movement of the design.

Collage #2 was the only sketch I went along with the most. I really wanted to do a design with a black background, and I'm glad I did because I think it contributed to active rhythm. I didn't think of using texture in the designs, but I still wanted the strawberry in this one to have a few more details.

For Collage #3, I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted it to be done, but I ended up utilizing more graphics in this design as well. The circular shapes are representing Cheerios from the product packaging. I didn't want to be too repetitive with them, but the grouping of them in separate corners allowed the made up work "Nutrition" to really stand out more, which is what I wanted when I even started making my collages.

Final Digitized Trio

After receiving feedback from our Professor, we were instructed to use feedback we got and make final decisions and edit our trio of designs. I was advised to keep a consistent quality within each of the designs. What stood out to me the most when making my collages was the Cheerios logo. The graphics of the cereal and strawberries that were displayed caught my eye and I really wanted to incorporate it to be somewhat noticeable yet active within my designs.

It felt somewhat difficult to continuously come up with a new method of integrating them in. Eventually I mostly included the strawberries within every design. I made the barcodes myself that are shown in the first design.