Bullet Energy Drink Redesign
Doug M. (444 points) | Wed, 2008-11-19 03:20
This is a new project that I did for school. I was told to redesign a energy drink logo. So I chose Bullet. An obscure energy drink with a really cool name. The current design for it seemed to not be exciting enough to me. So I livened up the colors and made everything by scratch. I feel like the top part is a kind of funky. Please critique that. Maybe it's not too late to fix it. This is meant to be wrapped around a glass bottle, whereas the original was a can. It's all vector. My first serious vector work. I'd like opinions for future projects and perhaps a little critique on this current one, even though it has already been turned in. Sorry I haven't posted any new stuff in a long time. Lots of school work. Not enough time to get down to business and work on something for myself. Anyways, critique! :D
- Doug May
after looking at your design, I checked out what they actually use and I do like your concept better... reminds me of the hand drawn labels on Bully Hill Wine
quick tips:
For paper labels don't forget your glue strip overlap! there can't be ink on it
Don't obscure the barcode, the barcode should be on a solid background.
for round objects like bottles and cans, use a 1/3 rule (on the shelf, only 1/3 of the can can be visible to the shopper so at most only 1/3 should be considered to be the FRONT of the can.
don't forget weights and measures
most products have a short blurb somewhere: "Made only from the finest blend of cafine and sugar with a touch of taurine and yellow #5 for that extra kick!"
as for the neck label, I think you're right, follow your gut and see what happens :)
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa
your use of colors, you may want to limit to 4 unless you can get a blend of 2 to equal another such as the magenta and yellow to get an orange. some customers can afford the extra colors without flinching, but most want to keep to 4 or less to keep down costs, so if they do care, you can maximize quality if you see you have only 5 colors, drop 1 color and make it 4 but if you have an image and it's likely to be converted to CMYK anyhow shift gears and have fun!
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa
thank you so much for all your critique. I don't know what I would do without you. I never really thought about a lot of the stuff you mentioned. I'll try to implement them right now.
Here's their website. It seems very unprofessional and amateur. I'm not sure if they intend to make money off of this energy drink or not...but I don't think it will do well.
http://bulletenergy.net/
no problem and welcome to the craft :) there's a lot you can learn just by taking apart some of the designs for large companies,such as Nike, Coke, Pepsi, Walmart
Your label looks like it was inspired by WIRED magazine. I love how they use brilliant spot colors everywhere.
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa
Thanks, I really like illustrator now. I'm not sold on Photoshop. I still think it is inferior to applications like Pixelmator, but there's still hope for it in the future. It needs some major redesign and new features in my opinion. Everything is in weird spots. The color pallete bugs me. Nothing is standard mac looking. It needs work. Maybe make a mac and a windows version with only slight differences?
Gasp! Dude, you will probably never ever use 10% of Photoshop's true capabilities. Photoshop is number 1. Pixelmator is just a cheap copy with nice gloss.
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I've never heard of Pixelmator.
The top 2 in the world are Adobe Photoshop and Corel Photopaint, and they both have their good points and bad, but so far as I can tell, everything else I've ever tried has been either a clone or inferior to those two. There are some features I'd like to see implemented, but they would be an addition to what's already there. the GUI's for Mac and PC versions are almost identical, and they need to be, because some prefer Mac, while others prefer PC, and then there are those who need to process files from both, such as printing companies. By having them work the same, it lets one person switch back and forth without getting confused.
I just checked out the Pixelmator website, including features and it looks like a PS clone to me, what's different about the GUI?
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa
Pixelmator has no toolbar on top, and there are some filters that Photoshop will most likely never get because they need quartz to do. Pixelmator fully implements OSX more. Photoshop is a great app, but I feel it is lacking in polish and ergonomically. There is nothing "AMAZING!" about Photoshop to me. It's just kind of...Photoshop. Pixelmator never ceases to amaze me with its intuitivity and graphics. It is very well designed. And it is updated differently, so I don't have to pay for a new one every time they release a new version.
I'm having trouble with my dock right now. None of my open applications are showing that they are open on the dock. I'll attach a screenshot to a Forum Topic. Please help! :D
"Pixelmator fully implements OSX more" ?
So basically you're saying you prefer the look of PM.
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"Did I really try to find an "undo" button on a vending machine?"
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It uses Quartz Composer in some of its filters. So it does some stuff that Photoshop probably won't ever do. I also prefer the look of it, but it just seems to run better on a mac compared to Photoshop. And it definitely takes less time to load. It runs faster on my computer than Photoshop. It basically has every feature Photoshop has. It's probably missing some of the obscurities, but for the most part, they're identical.
Wow. If you can show me a webpage that proves that PM has everything PS has - I'll ditch my CS3 right now.
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"Did I really try to find an "undo" button on a vending machine?"
Jack
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It doesn't have all the features, so don't start throwin' away that CS3 yet. (Unless your getting CS4, of course.) I personally like Pixelmator because I don't need a full fledged 1Gb app for the stuff I do with Pixelmator. It helps that Pixelmator loads extremely fast compared to PS's long load screen, because I use pixelmator often. There are many file formats you can import and export into and out of Pixelmator, making it a great alternative to preview......but I wouldn't compare it to preview. bleh.
you may be right, never having used pixelator, I cannot say. However it may be that those tools you refer to, are just not tools you have encountered yet in PS. they may be lumped in with some other similar function. there are some things I'd like to see added to PS but none of them are listed on the pixelator features list that I saw. I've found with most software for non-professionals that they put functions like Contrast and Brightness in an easy to access location
because these are functions that non-pros are more likey to know how to use.
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa
Contrast and Brightness are in the image menu bar. Just the logical place to put it.
Contrast and Brightness are in the image menu bar option. Just the logical place to put it. Pixelmator definitely needs more features...but this is really just the beginning. I think it is very well designed.
i think he may have been trying to be a bit sarcastic, since no true photoshop professional would use brightness and contrast. they would use levels or, even better, curves. brightness and contrast are sledge hammers. levels is a gemstone hammer. curves are surgeon's tools.
Curves! Woop!
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"Did I really try to find an "undo" button on a vending machine?"
Jack
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ah, i got it.
I was refering to the fact that non pros use contrast and brightness, though there are times when I still do use them for overall adjustments, 99% of the time I use curves
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa
The design is naive, but I think I like it because of it. It looks like a drug from the 60's. The feminine colors and lines are balanced well with the name. The color suggest some vanilla flavour, very sweet, very cheesy, which I would not like, but girls would. So, if the "target" of bullet is girls who can associate themselves with the hippy movement you're successful.
well, I was looking for the "this will taste like candy" look, and I think I achieved that. I didn't really want it to be targeted towards girls...and I agree that I may have gone overboard with the pastels. I started off with neon colors, but they slowly progressed towards pastel. Why was this posted on the Home page?
I do like hippy girls though.
Because I think it's a great example of the kind of work I would like to see posted. Proper description, final enough to comment.
oh! thank you! I'm going to post the new version now.
There is absolutely NOTHING Pixelmator can do that Photoshop can't. NOTHING. The only difference between the two apps is the GUI, and the fact that Pixelmator can do about 1/3 of what Photoshop can do. Anyone who thinks differently obviously has little to no experience using Photoshop.
By the way, I LIKE Pixelmator. It's a great application for people who don't need the power of Photoshop. I wrote a review of Pixelmator about a year ago for Macworld. I found it to be a great consumer-level image editor. But the comparison of Pixelmator to Photoshop is just absurd. Pixelmator might be more appropriate to compare to Photoshop Elements, but not Photoshop.
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ok, I guess it's just good for me cause I don't do a lot of intense stuff in Photoshop (like, making a button), I prefer pen and paper. I use illustrator and obscure apps instead. so pixelmator is a great alternative for me. Plus...I love the GUI.
You should append "I don't do a lot of intense stuff", with "yet..." ;) until you have a need, you likely won't know what to attempt to do, and when you do, you'll find the long way first, and eventually learn an easy way. :)
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa
OMG! Is this what you iTards call design?
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
I am not Steve Ballmer pretending not to be me!
HEY! that isnt cool. I hate you steve ballmer (faker)! just leave creativebits!
Yea this guy is a tard, and no one likes him.
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"Did I really try to find an "undo" button on a vending machine?"
Jack
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Why was this posted on the main page? I didn't post it there.
Ivan said - he picks out his favourite posts - he gave a reason why ^^^^^^
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"Did I really try to find an "undo" button on a vending machine?"
Jack
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I totally dilike the execution of this idea. The concept works, but things like the word "Bullet", the whole thing looks more like a doodle on the back of a notebook than anything else. if you stick with it, don't forget to rotate the barcode 45 degrees, the way it is now it's going to distort when it wraps around the bottle, therefore making it unreadable. Put it it a white box as well for better legibility.
Leaky Penny
www.leakypenny.com
“If you do what you love to do, then you won’t do it in an average way.”
~ Angela Bassett
Leaky Penny
www.leakypenny.com
When I leave, close together like butt cheeks.
-Grits N' Gravy
Oh - this totally wouldnt work as a bottle. The design needs to be portrait (or the majority of the logo) so it can be easily seen from one angle on the shelf.
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"Did I really try to find an "undo" button on a vending machine?"
Jack
----
BRANDING | PRINT | WEB
www.jhousedesign.com
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We discussed the 1/3 rule and barcode rules in the first thread ;) but not the rotation (shouldn't it be 90 degrees? so the laser can read the bars in a line?)... I forgot to mention that.
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa
Sorry about that, yeah, 90 degrees, that way the scanner can read the bars since they won't be warped when wrapped around the bottle.
Leaky Penny
www.leakypenny.com
“If you do what you love to do, then you won’t do it in an average way.”
~ Angela Bassett
Leaky Penny
www.leakypenny.com
When I leave, close together like butt cheeks.
-Grits N' Gravy
heh, that totally makes sense. I didn't really think about the functionality as much as I should have. I'm doing a poster for a band this week. We are using windows pc's, so it isn't very enjoyable doing work at school. I often do everything at home except scanning things. I don't own a scanner or a drawing pad thing (what's it called?) for the computer. I will upload onto CB when my posters are close to finished. See you all then. :)
- Doug May
This post has been updated.
http://creativebits.org/bullet_energy_drink_final
I;ve posted the final, anyone want to comment on it?
http://creativebits.org/bullet_energy_drink_final