Process and Production (year 2) - Creative Suite - Character Creation

This was the first session back in the creative suite and for this task we were aiming to create our own character to be featured on a cereal packaging. Once you have a character then you can focus on the look of the packaging as the character will be the main feature. Before creating my own character we looked at examples of character design and were told to pay attention to form, consider the brand and audience and what is your character about. 

We started the process by working on paper rather than going straight to the computer as you can quickly generate ideas on paper. They can be quick and rough which is the good part as they don't need to be a finalised idea it just about getting your idea on paper so you can get rid of the rubbish ideas in the early stages of design. 

This task was quite daunting to me at first as I don't see myself as a particularly good drawer, however I drew out many different characters until I started to get somewhere with the design and started creating ideas that I was pleased with. When I had character's I liked I decided to do character sheets which showed them at different angles so that I could see them in different positions which could be used later in my cereal box layout. 

Character Experimentation:


On the first page I drew a mixture of characters just to experiment with; I began by drawing a tiger/cat with dungaree's on which was meant to look cute but I feel that it ended up being slightly creepy. The head was way too big for the body as all of the proportions were out. Also on this page I drew a gingerbread man, a butterfly, a berry, a robot, a bowling pin, a peanut and a man. My favourite from this page is the little robot, my peers like the cat though so I may take these two further. 

Jay showed us character sheets online and suggested that we create some so that we can visualise them at different angles and positions; so I did that for the cat and the robot. The robot was fairly easy to draw whereas I really struggled with the cat and therefore I wouldn't want to take this one further if I can't even draw it. 

After that I decided to get rid of my previous ideas and thought about other characters a child may like to see and connect with which is why I drew a character sheet for a standing robot. Children think robots are 'cool' so I thought that this was an interesting idea I could develop. 

Moving on I drew a character sheet for a bear and an owl which both appear cuddly to a child; therefore these characters would add warmth to the design. I really like the bear as it is quite simple, however it just reminds me of the bear from 'TED' so I want to keep away from that. 



Then finally I started drawing out a girl; this would focus mainly on the girl market so my design is quite concentrated on that. I think that although I'm narrowing my market I think that it may be more successful as the design will be focused. The girl looks quite playful and a young girl would be able to relate to the character which I think is important when creating a character. I will choose this design for the cereal branding and packaging as it cute but has substance. 


Name Generation:

After creating my character I had more of an idea on the aesthetic of the cereal so from this I could start to generate names for the brand which would then lead to the layout of the packaging. As my character is a young girl I wanted to come up with a name for the character so that the audience can create a connection with the brand. With this in mind I instantly thought of Lola as its a short sweet name which I felt worked well with her image and the fact that she is carrying a lollipop. So from this I started to generate ideas around the name Lola and lollipops until I came to the conclusion of using 'Lola's Mix' as it is simple and short which is key I think for cereals as they need to catch the attention of the audience quite quickly as there is so many cereals on the market to choose from. Also the 'mix' idea is a play on 'pic n mix' which to a child is a amazing so I wanted the cereal to be desirable. From this I moved on to combining the name and character in to packaging layouts...

Layouts:
For the start I only focused on the front of the packaging as once you have the aesthetic for the front, the other sides will come together quite quickly as the theme will carry on to the other sides. Once the front is finalised that is when I will concentrate on the rest of the box. 


I found it quite challenging producing different layouts for the packaging as in some sense theres only so many ways you can choose to layout it out; although the key to a good layout is good positioning, so that the layout looks balanced. On the front I needed space for the character, name and a potential slogan; I also wanted to include a bowl of cereal with a spoon to show the consumer what the product looks like and get them intrigued. Also by placing the cereal on the box it gives the brand more stability as then its quite clear what the product is. Below is the layouts I developed in the session, the next stage will be to pick a style/layout and start to digitalise it; I would probably start with the character again though. The whole box will be designed not just the front and then I will experiment with colour; this is where the computer is useful to start visualising the final outcome as you can quickly change the colour scheme without much effort or time wasted.